Newsletter
Information for members
April 2004

Previous issue: March 2004
Next issue: May 2004

Download this newsletter as a PDF file

Unless marked otherwise, the following meetings are free to members and guests.

Location maps are now always available on the website.

All are welcome but for those meetings where the organiser's telephone or email is given, it would be helpful if you could please let them know of your intention to attend .

Programme

Tuesday, 6th April 6.15pm
“Project Information exchange ( PIX ): Protocol Guide & Toolkit: The impact of communication protocols for construction”
Speakers: John George and Peter Goodwin
Chairman: David Savage
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place , London SW1

Tuesday, 4th May 6.15pm
Philip Britton will present his SCL Hudson prize-winning paper “The architect, the banker, his wife and the adjudicator: unfair contract terms and construction”
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1
(For further details of this meeting, see flyer)

Thursday, 6th May 6.00pm
“Novation after Blyth and Blyth ”
Speaker: Scott McKinnell
Chairman: Simon Goss
Venue: The Brunel Room, The Hawthorns, Bristol BS8
Organiser: simongoss@scl.org.uk

Wednesday, 12th May at 6.30pm
AGM and Annual Dinner at Middle Temple Hall, London
See separate item below.
Members, if you have not already done so, please hurry and make your booking to secure your place at the annual dinner!
Click here for booking form

Tuesday, 18th May 6.00pm
“An update on arbitration cases”
Speaker: Rowan Planterose
Chairman: Barbara Colledge
Venue: Brunswick Lecture Theatre, Leeds Metropolitan University
Organiser: jonathanhawkswell@scl.org.uk

Tuesday, 8th June 6.15pm
“Putting the Protocol into Practice – the PFE Change Management Supplements. Is it what the industry wants?”
Speakers to include: Julian Critchlow, Nicholas Gould and Keith Pickavance
Chairman: Richard Bayfield
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place , London SW1

Tuesday, 8th June 6.00pm
“Professional liability and construction professionals”
Speaker: Andrew Noble
Chairman: Andrew MacCuish
Venue: Brunswick Lecture Theatre, Leeds Metropolitan University
Organiser: jonathanhawkswell@scl.org.uk

Thursday, 10th June 6.00pm
(Topic to be announced)
Speaker: Andrew Bartlett QC
Chairman: tba
Venue: Room 2, Faculty of Law, University of Birmingham
Organiser: arulselvaratnam@scl.org.uk

Advance Notice : In association with King’s College London, a conference on Key Construction Risks and Dispute Resolution: An International Perspective will be held at the Strand Campus on 1st/2nd July. Further details will be announced very shortly.

The AGM and Annual Dinner

For those new to the Society, or those of you who may have missed the recent announcement, the AGM will take place at Middle Temple Hall at 6.30pm on Wednesday, 12 th May. See separate item below on this year’s election.

After the AGM , pre-dinner drinks will be served - in the gardens, if fine - followed by dinner itself in the splendid atmosphere of Middle Temple Hall. This year the musical interlude will be provided by the highly acclaimed Abbott O’Gorman Duo, widely recognised as one of the foremost piano duo ensembles. Those wishing to know more about them can visit the music website www.cubittmusic.co.uk

The flyer giving details of how to book is attached to this newsletter and the price of £65 per member – this includes pre-dinner drinks and wine – is the same as it was last year (and the year before). The annual dinner is the one function of the year reserved for SCL members only and we hope that as many of you as possible will be able to join us. We particularly urge those of you who have never been before to come along to this very friendly function and meet your fellow members.

Council Retirements 2004

This year we have one founder member and five elected members of Council retiring. The founder member retiring is Alan Shilston who tells us that whilst his arthritis limits his visits to London it has not yet reached his brain and he promises to soon be contributing to the ethics debate! Nigel Jones QC , Fenella Mason, Dr Derek Ross, David Risbridger and Vicky Russell are also stepping down. We are sad to see them depart as each has contributed in their own inimitable way, we are sure that all will continue to support the Society. We are particularly sad to be losing Vicky Russell whose 14 years on Council have been marked by strong friendships and effective leadership during her time as both Chairman of the UK Society and as President of the European Society.

Would you like to stand for Council?
Elections 2004 - Deadline for standing - Thursday 8 th April

So now is the time of the year to think about standing for Council. Most members of council are likely to say that being on Council is enjoyable, fun and also hard work (not necessarily in that order). There are no precedents or protocols on Council membership, the current Chairman is an Engineer, the previous Chairman is an Architect and the one before that a Solicitor. The one thing they have in common is a sense of humour and an appreciation of good wine! The strength of Council is its diversity of backgrounds and experience, it is up to us members to ensure that this diversity remains. Council members typically attend up to six Council meetings per year and join one or more subcommittees in areas such as the SCL Hudson prize, the talks programme, social events programme, TCC , CIC, policy matters, ethics and IT. Once elected to Council then the normal period of office is either 2 years or 3 years depending on the number of retiring members amongst other factors.

Meanwhile if you would like to know more about the work of the Council before deciding whether or not to stand, please contact the Chairman Richard Bayfield on 01865 311800 or richardbayfield@scl.org.uk or contact any other officers of the Society, who will be happy to give you further information. If you would like to stand for election to Council, please contact Jackie Morris to let her know by the 8 th April. If you decide to stand, the procedure is as follows:

1. You must be a paid up member of the Society.

2. You must be nominated and seconded by paid up members of the Society.

3. You must provide the following information:
(a) Your name
(b) Your work/practice address
(c) Your professional qualifications, if any
(d) The names of your proposer and seconder
(e) The year you joined the Society (if you cannot remember, then admin can help)

4. You must also provide an election statement, not exceeding 100 words.

5. You must email this info to admin@scl.org.uk by close of business (i.e. by 5.00 pm ) on Thursday 8 th April.

Paid up members will be able to vote by postal ballot or, alternatively, at the AGM to be held at 6.30pm at Middle Temple Hall on Wednesday 12 th May. More details over election arrangements will follow shortly.

Wakefield Conference

On the 11 th March the Leeds branch of the Society, in conjunction with the local branch of the RICS and Leeds Metropolitan University held their annual conference. The title of this successful and thought provoking event was ‘Innovation and Change in Construction Law’. The quality of the speakers as well as the topicality of the subject ensured high attendance. The speakers covered the development of adjudication, recent changes in standard forms, and the implementation of partnering at Heathrow Terminal 5. The chairman, Professor HH Judge Humphrey LLoyd kept things moving through a packed session, as well being a most informative and entertaining lecturer.

Clare Edwards

As many of you will by now know, Clare Edwards, Director of Legal Affairs at the Construction Confederation and a long standing member of the Society, died on 7 March, aged 40.

Nearly 400 people attended her funeral, at which the Society was represented by a number of its members.

Our heartfelt sympathy goes to Clare's husband Stephen and her two young daughters, Anna and Lily.

Resolving Disputes “Professionally” or “Commercially” – developments in ICE Dispute Resolution

The latest developments in ICE Dispute Resolution will be introduced at a half-day seminar at the Institution of Civil Engineers on Monday 5 th July 2004 at 1.30pm, including

• the newly revised Clause 66
• NEC 3 rd Edition and the HGCR Act
• the ICE Dispute Resolution Board Procedure.

Speakers include Simon Delves, Tony Bingham, Geoffrey Hawker, Frances Forward and Gwyn Owen. A reception courtesy of Shadbolts and Co will follow the presentations and discussion.

Admission is free but it will be necessary reserve a place with the ICE. To do this or to request further information please contact John Hawkins on 020 7665 2217 or John.Hawkins@ice.org.uk

TCC Users Committee Meeting

The next Users Committee meeting has been changed from 31 March to 28 April; Vicky Russell is handing over to Julie Forsyth as SCL representative on this Committee, so if you have any issues which you would like Julie specifically to raise, please contact her at julieforsyth@scl.org.uk to let her know.

Ethics Group - second meeting

The second meeting of the whole group will now take place at 5.30pm on Monday, 26 th April at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, 12 Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A. At the meeting, the subgroups' work will be discussed and the next steps determined. The ethics section of the website includes related documents and links to related sites.  The private pages also include more details, including the revised timetable.

Email Communication

When we send out emails to members – general reminders about subscriptions, or meetings – we are experiencing a large number of emails being returned undelivered. This could be because we have a large number of incorrect email addresses, or it could be because the SCL email is rejected by members’ own filter systems, designed to reject ‘nuisance’ emails getting through. If you are not receiving meeting reminders from SCL – and want to do so – could you check please (a) that we have your correct email address and (b) that your filter system is set so that it accepts SCL emails.

SCL Website

If you have not yet done so, take a look at the new website which has been completely redesigned to make it easier to use. Members can now log in from the homepage, and stay logged in throughout the site until they log out. When you log in you will see a new navigation link to 'Members' which is where you can update your contact details, email subscriptions and data protection info - as well as search for information about other SCL members who have agreed for their data to be accessible to other members on the website (currently over 500 members). In due course some new facilities will be added for members.

Other site enhancements include:

• Easier site navigation, more sections and links from the new left-navigation on all pages except the home page.
• A News page and a separate Newsletters list page.
• Forthcoming events can now be filtered by city.
• A new 'ethics' section of the site.

If you have any questions, problems or suggestions, please contact our webmaster, Edward Peters, at webmaster@scl.org.uk

Contributions invited from Members

What construction law related topic would you like to see presented as a talk? Please email your suggestions to Jackie Morris on admin@scl.org.uk and we will do our best to organise a talk in your area.

You are also invited to contribute to the newsletter. If you have an item related to construction law that you feel would be of interest to others, then please email text to Jackie Morris at admin@scl.org.uk. A member of Council will thereafter decide whether to include the item in the next newsletter. Please note that we do not accept advertisements or items of a commercial nature.

New members

Finally, we are pleased to welcome the following new members who joined the Society in March:

Ho Fan, Hong Kong
Graham Streater, Hertfordshire
Frederick Dennis, Rotherham
Antony Roy Pickavance, Nottingham
David Dunbar, Glasgow
Zoe Raxter, London
Vincent Hooker, Bedfordshire
Andrew Roach-Bowler, Kent
Robert Turton, London
Henry Sell, London
David Dale, Derby
Frederick Samelian, London
Peter Walder, Hong Kong
Helena Brown, London
John Kittow, Surrey
Argyris Hadjimiltis, London

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