Valerie is a Partner in our infrastructure, construction and energy disputes team, based in Scotland but with a practice that extends across the UK and overseas. Valerie has over 20 years’ experience specialising in dispute management and resolution in these sectors.
Valerie is dual qualified in England & Wales and Scotland and has extensive experience in managing complex multi-party and expedited proceedings in the High Court. With a focus on disputes in the energy sector, she regularly leads teams comprising lawyers and counsel based across offices and multiple jurisdictions and is adept at planning and managing those processes to ensure delivery of workstreams on time and on budget, working closely with her clients on sensitive strategic issues to achieve a result which recognises their commercial goals as well as their legal position.
She is also regularly trusted by clients to provide support on NSTA regulatory investigations. She co-authored the first book on the NSTA’s regulatory regime: “Maximising Economic Recovery – a new approach to regulating the UK’s offshore oil & gas industry” (with Judith Aldersey-Williams, published 2023). She is a trained mediator and senior DPLP tutor for mediation at Aberdeen University.
On a day-to-day basis, Valerie advises on a wide variety of disputes, including: operator and JV disputes; SPA disputes; industry standard form contracts; contract termination; delay and disruption claims; offshore and onshore construction claims (for example, in relation to rigs or FPSOs); indemnity claims; supply chain disputes; protection of assets and protestor response, including urgent injunctions; judicial review; vessel and third party claims; and damage to property.
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Education
Valerie is an energy disputes partner, based in Scotland but with a practice that extends across the UK and overseas. She specialises in dispute management and resolution in the energy, construction and infrastructure sectors. Valerie has particular expertise in joint venture disputes arising in UKCS joint ventures, advising several operators on highly confidential and market sensitive project and joint venture issues over the course of the last year, including in relation to the current challenges to the industry brought by protestor direct action and protest litigation, and in relation to complex decommissioning disputes. She is also recognised for her expertise in respect of regulatory issues in relation to the work of the North Sea Transition Authority.
Valerie is an Acritas-Star rated lawyer and recommended by clients there specifically for her industry knowledge and understanding. She is recognised as a key lawyer for Oil & Gas in Scotland in Legal500 and ranked Band 3 in Chambers for Energy & Natural Resources Disputes (UK-wide). She regularly carries out training for clients on topics that range from detailed black letter law topics to practical issues such as emergency protestor response. She is a trained mediator and the senior DPLP tutor on mediation for Aberdeen University.
She is primarily responsible for CMS’s annual oil & gas disputes survey and regularly presents and contributes to various publications. This year has included various webinars in relation to responding to unlawful protest activity and her article (written with Dalia Majmunder-Russell and James Snape) on developments in the UKC Emissions Trading Scheme was published in the Utilities Law Review in May 2022.
