Newsletter
Information for members
March 2005

Previous issue: February 2005 | Next issue: April 2005

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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 1 March, 6.15pm
“Novation”
Speaker: Christopher Cullen
Chairman: Frances Paterson
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1

Thursday 10 March, 6pm
"EU Public procurement rules as they affect building contracts and PFI projects"
Speaker: Paul Mountain, solicitor and head of construction
Chairman: Deborah Ritchie
Venue: Martineau Johnson, Colmore Square, Birmingham B4 6.00pm
The meeting has been organised by Arul Selvaratnam but if you wish to attend please let Deborah Ritchie know either by telephone on 0121 232 1184 or by email on deborahritchie@eversheds.com

Monday 14 March, 6.15pm
"Unethical behaviour and criminal acts" (see separate item below)
Speaker: Neill Stansbury
Chairman: Professor John Uff QC CBE
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1

Monday 14 March, 6.30pm
"Acceleration claims on construction projects"
Speaker: John Lyden
Chairman: Eamonn McCarthy
Venue: Rochestown Park Hotel, Rochestown Road, Douglas, Cork

Tuesday 15 March, 6pm
"Putting the Protocol into practice"
Speaker: Keith Pickavance
Chairman: Richard Wade
Venue: Said Business School, Park End Street, Oxford

Thursday 17 March, 6pm
"Insurance matters in construction"
Speaker: Bill Gloyn
Chairman: Anthony Lavers
Venue: Bristol University , The Hawthorns, Bristol BS8
Organiser: simongoss@scl.org.uk

Monday 21 March, 6pm
"Natural justice in Adjudication"
Speaker: Sean Brannigan
Chairman: Anthony Lavers
Venue: Hambledon Suite 1, The Rose Bowl, Southampton SO30
Organiser: marianharris-deans@scl.org.uk

Tuesday 5 April, 6.15pm
“Temporary Disconformity”
Speakers: Anthony Lavers and Ellis Baker
Chairman: Dr Robert Gaitskell QC
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1

Wednesday 20 April, 6.15pm
Joint SCL/Scottish Building Contract Committee
“Bringing Arbitration out of the cold”
Speakers: Professor John Uff QC and Lord Dervaird
Joint Chair: Mike Towers & Lindy Patterson
Venue: The Signet Library, Edinburgh
This meeting is organised by lindypatterson@scl.org.uk but bookings must be made by sending name and address tot he SBCCL Secretary, Jasmine Sneddon MCIArb, Email: jsneddon@rics.org telephone: 0131 240 0832

Tuesday 3 May, 6.15pm
Speaker and talk title to be announced
Chairman: Anthony Lavers
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1

Tuesday 10 May, 6.15pm
“How to succeed in Adjudication: An Adjudicator’s View”
Speaker: Eric Mouzer
Chairman: tba
Venue: Brunswick Lecture Theatre, Leeds Metropolitan University
Organiser: jonathanhawkswell@scl.org.uk

Tuesday 17 May, 6pm
“Construction Insurances”
Speaker: Bill Gloyn
Chairman: Jocelyn Taylor
Venue: Newton Building, Nottingham Trent University
Organiser: jocelyntaylor@scl.org.uk

Tuesday 7 June 6.15pm
Topic TBA
Speaker: Michael Blacker
Chairman: tba
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1

Tuesday 5 July, 6.15.pm
Joint SCA/ SCL meeting (speaker & chairman tba)
National Liberal Club, 1 Whitehall Place, London SW1

Ethics Group - meeting in London Monday 14th March

An open meeting will be held on Monday 14th March at the National Liberal Club in London, at 6.15pm, when Neill Stansbury will talk on 'Unethical behaviour and criminal acts'. He will explain how unethical behaviour on construction contracts may well constitute criminal behaviour, and present the Transparency International's Anti-Corruption Code for individuals in the construction and engineering industry. The Anti-Corruption Code is being published by the Society as a discussion paper, and will be made available at the meeting. The meeting will be chaired by Professor John Uff QC CBE.

As usual, all members and their guests are very welcome but this is an open meeting so please encourage your non-member colleagues and clients that they also are welcome to attend.

Would you like to stand for Council?

Now is the time of the year to think about standing for Council. More information on the number of vacancies on Council will be given in the next newsletter. 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 Academic/Barrister, the previous Chairman is an Engineer and the one before that a Architect. 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 members to ensure that this diversity remains. Council members typically attend up to 6 Council meetings per year and join one or more subcommittees in areas such as the 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.

If you would like to know more about the work of the Council before deciding whether or not to stand, please contact the Chairman Anthony Lavers on 020 7397 3809 or anthonylavers@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. 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 a 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.

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, 11th May. More details on election arrangements will follow in the next newsletter.

Membership and SCL logo clarification following recent queries

All members are reminded that:

1. Membership of the Society does not carry a qualification as such, however SCL Membership may be mentioned on a CV.

2. Members who have a web site can create a link to the SCL web site but the Society will only link to non-commercial organisations from its own web site (www.scl.org.uk).

3. Membership of the Society does not allow members to use the SCL logo as part of their individual or corporate promotional material.

4. The SCL logo can be used for promotional material involving events (such as conferences) in which SCL is a key partner. However permission to use the logo must always be requested first.

Renewal of Membership 2005

We still await receipt of some subscription payments. If you did not receive the invoice sent to you in December, or have mislaid it, please email admin@scl.org.uk and ask for a replacement copy.

If you do not intend to renew your membership this year, please let Admin know so that your name can be taken off the membership list.

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.

If you have any questions, problems or suggestions, please contact our webmaster, Edward Peters, at Webmaster

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 February:

Philip Adams, Surrey
Karl Banks, Leeds
Catherine Barstow, London
Graeme Bradley, Birmingham
Hippolyte Chigbu, Poland
Nisha Darbari, London
Trevor Dyke, Hampshire
Colin Featherstone, Brighton
Margot Forsythe, Bristol
Christopher Hackett, West Midlands
Zane Hedge, London
Charles Howard, Surrey
Hossein Jahanshahi, London
Pablo Laorden, Spain
John Littler, Lancashire
Assad Maqbool, London
Stuart Ness, The Netherlands
Marc Wilkins, Surrey
Paresh Pindolia, Middlesex
Deborah Primett, London
Anna Roberts, London
Sarah Schutte, London
Richard Shadbolt, Surrey
Kevin Taylaur, London
John Taylor, Australia
Natalie Wardle, London
Shona Watson, Edinburgh
Ejikeme Okoro, West Midlands
David Wilson, Glasgow
Indrayogan Yogarajah, Singapore

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