Newsletter
Information for members
June 2004

Previous issue: May 2004 | Next issue: July 2004

Download this newsletter as a PDF file

Programme

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.

Tuesday, 8th June, 6.15pm
“Putting the Protocol into Practice – the PFE Change Management Supplements. Is it what the industry wants?”
Speakers for the motion: Nicholas Gould & Keith Pickavance
Speakers against the motion: Peter Aeberli and Peter Hibberd
Chairman: Professor Phillip Capper
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
“Public duties and private remedies – floods or floodgates? Marcic v Thames Water Utilities Ltd and other cases”
Speakers: Kim Franklin and Simon Brown QC
Chairman: tba
Venue: Room 2, Faculty of Law, University of Birmingham
Organiser: arulselvaratnam@scl.org.uk

Tuesday, 15th June, 6.00pm
“Insights from beyond Construction – Collaboration – the Honda experience”
Speakers: Richard Bayfield and Paul Roberts
Chairman: tba
Venue: Said Business School, Oxford
Organiser: richardwade@scl.org.uk

Thursday, 1st July, 6.15pm
Joint SCL/SCA meeting.
A debate with an international perspective. “What’s wrong with arbitration?”
Speakers: Professor John Uff QC, Harold Crowter and John Tackaberry QC
(all to be confirmed & chairman to be announced)
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1

AGM News

We thank all candidates for the courage shown by making themselves vulnerable and taking part in the Council election. We hope that all candidates will be able to actively contribute to our future activities. We had 5 vacancies and 8 highly qualified and able candidates. It is a sign of a healthy society that we had such good competition for places on Council. The five successful candidates were: Christopher Dering, Brian Gayton, Nicholas Gould, Keith Kirkwood and Lindy Patterson.

A copy of the Chairman’s Report is bound in with this newsletter. (And on this website)

SCL Honorary Members

Congratulations go to the Right Honourable Lord Justice May and Sir Patrick Garland! The Constitution provides that Council may elect Honorary Members on account of their distinction and eminence, and we are pleased to announce that Council has elected both as Honorary Members of the Society.

New President for SCL

The retirement of the President, The Right Honourable Sir Philip Otton, was announced at the Annual Dinner of the Society of Construction Law, held at Middle Temple Hall on Wednesday 12th May. Sir Philip has been President of the Society for the last eight years. He has been an invaluable friend and supporter of the Society, with an interest and participation in events in both this country and abroad. With Sir Philip’s backing and support the Society has expanded considerably, during his Presidency, in terms of membership, geography and range of interests. His involvement will be greatly missed, but the Society is grateful for all that he has contributed and wishes him well for the future.

The Society is pleased to announce that the Right Honourable Lord Justice Anthony May has agreed to become the new President of the Society. Lord Justice May has a long and distinguished career in Construction Law. He has been a Lord Justice of Appeal since 1997 and Vice President of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court since 2002. He is also President of the Technology and Construction Bar Association, and was Editor of Keating on Building Contracts for both the fifth and sixth editions. The Society is honoured that Lord Justice May has accepted this new post and looks forward to moving onwards and upwards with him in the years to come.

SCL New Officers

At the recent Council meeting, Richard Bayfield stood down as Chairman. Richard is succeeded by Anthony Lavers who was previously Vice Chairman. Julie Forsyth moves from Secretary to Vice Chairman whilst Nicholas Gould becomes Secretary. Corrina King remains the Treasurer. Richard continues as a Member of Council.

The new Officers are:

Chairman: Anthony Lavers Vice Chairman: Julie Forsyth
Secretary: Nicholas Gould Treasurer: Corrina King

The fifth Michael Brown lecture at King’s College, London

In the Great Hall (Strand Campus) Wednesday, 23 June at 6.30pm, Professor Phillip Capper will give a public lecture: “The Construction Act: are we – or the judges – taking wrong turns?”

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception. All are welcome but please indicate your intention to attend to Sue Hart on 020 7848 2643 or email susan.hart@kcl.ac.uk If attending, you are asked to take your seat by 6.15pm please.

Junior SCL Site Visit to CTRL King’s Cross – 1st April 2004

Thirty members of the Society of Construction Law enjoyed a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes and below ground at the King’s Cross Redevelopment Project. This will become London’s newest international transport hub, based at King’s Cross/St Pancras.

Metronet provided a guided tour of the multi-million pound Project which is due for completion in 2007. The current budget for the hub is around £450M with an overall budget of £1.6B for the entire Project.

During the visit it was possible to see two of the main ticket halls under construction below ground at Kings Cross/St Pancras. Three photos from the site visit can be viewed on the Adjudication Society’s web-page.

Nicholas Gould organises the Junior SCL events for the Society, and can be emailed on by email

President’s Medal 2004

You may remember that Professor John Uff QC was the recipient of the first ever President’s Medal in October 2000 and, in 2002, the second medal was awarded to Professor Ian Duncan Wallace QC. Members are now invited to submit their nominations for this year’s award.

If you would like to nominate a candidate or candidates, please email your suggestion(s) to Jackie Morris at admin@scl.org.uk no later than Monday, 6th September. The candidate need not be a member of SCL but should clearly have made a significant contribution to furthering the Society’s aim of promoting the study and understanding of construction law amongst all those involved in the construction industry.

The winner(s) will be decided by the President, together with the officers of SCL and the recipient(s) will then receive a special invitation to attend the President’s Reception to be held on 18th October.

The Regions

As you all know Charlotte Blake is undertaking a review of the working and relationship of the regions and London branches of the society. Naturally she is in direct contact with the relevant organisers. However, there maybe those who are not so involved who have pertinent and useful views or comments to make and she would be very pleased to hear from you. Please contact her with your views on charlotteblake@scl.org.uk

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 5th July 2004 at 1.30pm, including

• the newly revised Clause 66
• NEC 3rd 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

IT Development

An ever increasing number of members combined with a lack of admin resources has meant that issuing receipts for cheques for membership subscriptions has, of necessity, been confined to those who made a specific request for one. Now, thanks to recent IT developments, every member who sends a cheque for renewal of membership will receive an individual email acknowledging receipt of cheque and confirming renewal of membership for the year – automatically generated as each member’s cheque is logged for payment to SCL’s bank account.

We are sure that members will judge this to be a distinct improvement which, in addition, has added nothing to the admin costs of the Society.

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

New Members

We are pleased to welcome the following new members who joined the Society in May:

Anthony Brayford, Halesowen, West Midlands

Alexander Hirom, London
Zachary Law, Halesowen, West Midlands
Karolos Seeger, London
Alexander Hickey, London
Kate Kirby, London
Andrew Slawson, Chester
Lawrence Rogers, Abingdon, Oxon
Michael Hansen, Cheltenham
Bryte Legister, London

The Last Word – A letter from Sir Patrick Garland

“Dear Richard,

Very many thanks for a most delightful evening and the pleasure of becoming an Honorary Member together with my former pupil and the new President, Anthony.

I am most grateful to you all for “including me in”. Construction Law has come a long way during my career having been regarded as a sort of legal Cinderella. The SCL and ORBA (now TecBar) have done a lot to put the speciality where it belongs: in the front row.

Yours ever,

Patrick”

Back to the top