Newsletter
Information for members
February 2008

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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,  5 February 6.30pm
“Compound Interest and Financing Claims – the Sempra Metals revolution”
Speaker: His Honour Judge Anthony Thornton QC
Chairman: Ronan Champion
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1

Tuesday, 12 February 6.00pm 
Joint SCL/Northumbria University School of the Built Environment Seminar
“Climate Change and the Building Industry:  Outlooks and Forecasts”
Speaker:  tba
Chairman: Professor Rudi Klein
Venue:  Northumbria University, Room A206, Ellison Building,  Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 
Organiser: Simon Lewis

Friday, 22 February  12.30pm  
The Society's Annual Lunch at the Brewery
Speaker: Sandi Toksvig
Venue: The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London 
Members and their guests are invited to lunch at the Brewery. Cost:  £65 per person.
All tickets for this event are now sold.  There is a waiting list for returned tickets, contact franceswhitehead@scl.org.uk

Tuesday,  4 March 6.15pm 
“European Procurement Law - why it matters to you”
Speaker: Sarah Hannaford
Chairman:  Mr Justice Coulson
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1

Friday, 7 March 8.30am
SCL Annual Conference in partnership with The RICS & Leeds Metropolitan University
“Resolving disputes in construction”
Speakers:   Mr Justice Ramsey, Christopher Ennis, Ian Pennicott QC, Ronan Champion & Nerys Jefford
Chairman:  Jonathan Hawkswell
Venue:  The Royal Armouries, Leeds 
Organiser: Jonathan Hawkswell

Thursday, 13 March  6.00pm
Joint SCL/CIOB meeting
“Mock Arbitration Hearing”
Speaker:  Tony Bingham
Venue: Hambledon Suite 1, The Rose Bowl, Southampton SO30 
Organiser: Marian Harris-Deans

Tuesday, 18 March 5.30pm
Joint SCL/SNBCC Meeting
“Resolution of Construction Disputes in the Construction Court”
Speaker: Mr Justice Ramsey
Chairman:  The Honourable Lord Clarke
Venue: Signet Library, Parliament Square, Edinburgh EH1
Organiser: Lindy Patterson

Tuesday, 8 April 6.15pm 
“CDM Regulations 2007 - One year on”
Speaker: Ben Legg
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1  

Tuesday, 6 May 6.15pm 
Presentation of the winning 2007 SCL Hudson Prize Paper
Winner to be announced
Chairman:  Professor Anthony Lavers
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1

Tuesday, 13 May 6.15pm 
“Presenting cases in court: what a judge looks for”
Speaker:   His Honour Judge Grenfell
Chairman:   Martin Green
Venue:   Lecture Theatre 118, The Northern Terrace, Civic Quarter, Leeds LS1 
Organiser: Jonathan Hawkswell

Wednesday, 14 May 6.30pm
The Society's AGM & Annual Dinner
Venue: Middle Temple Hall, London EC4
This event is for SCL members only

Tuesday, 3 June 6.15pm
“Sustainability and Environmental Liability”
Speaker:  Ian McGrath
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1

Tuesday, 1 July  6.30pm
Joint SCL/Society of Construction Arbitrators meeting
“Is it all necessary?  Who benefits?  Provision for multi-tier dispute resolution in international construction contracts”
Speaker:  Ellis Baker
Chairman:  Nerys Jefford           
Venue: National Liberal Club, London SW1

Thursday  3 July  6.15pm
“Proof of delay claims: London Underground v Citylink”
Speaker:         Nerys Jefford
Venue:           Jury's Inn Hotel, Midsummer Boulevard, Central Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire MK9                                                          
Organisers: Judith Bird and Michael Gerard

London Speaker Programme

Feedback and suggestions for speakers and topics continue to be gratefully received by the organising committee: Nerys Jefford, Nicholas Gould ad Paula McKinley.

Website Survey

Many thanks to the members who have completed the online survey about the SCL website.  Much useful information has been gathered which will help in tailoring the new site more closely to the needs of members.

General responses showed that most members do not visit the site more than once or twice a month, but most find the site quite useful.  Of the current features on the site, papers and event information scored highest. Only about 30% of members use the members database to look up contact information about other members, and less than 20% use the online booking system for events.

Of the new features proposed, a good search engine ranked highest, followed by an email notification service for new content. 30-40% of members are interested in online forums, but less than 10% would use RSS feeds or blogs.

Nearly half of respondents said they were ready to discuss their ideas with the webmaster, and 100 said they would be ready to help with testing the new website when the prototype is ready.  We are also grateful that, so far, 46 members said they would be interested in helping keep the site up to date.

It is too early to be certain when the new site will be ready, but it is hoped that it will be in the second quarter of the year.

Edward Peters,
SCL webmaster

Subscriptions

We are grateful to the many members who have already paid their subscriptions for 2008.  If you have not yet renewed your subscription a reminder please that your subscription is now due.

Membership Renewal invoices were posted to all full members during December.  If you did not receive, or have mislaid, your invoice please contact Jackie Morris at admin@scl.org.uk who can email a duplicate.

Please note that, to keep admin costs to a minimum, we particularly welcome payment direct through our secure website.

Overseas e-members have been sent an email reminder requesting renewal of membership online.

 Dispute Resolution Board Foundation

The DRBF 8th Annual International Conference will take place in Cape Town on 2-4 May 2008.  The topic is ‘Dispute Resolution in Africa’.

Further details, including the programme and registration form can be found on the homepage of the SCL website.

DRB email:  home@drb.org    DRB website:  www.drb.org

Opportunities for Sponsorship - SCL International Conference 2008

As previously reported, the Society of Construction Law is delighted to be hosting the 2008 International Construction Law Conference in London.  The conference will be held between 5th and 7th October 2008 with a welcoming event on the Sunday evening, a gala dinner on the Monday evening and the President’s reception on the Tuesday evening so please make a note in your diaries. 

This event will attract many high profile speakers and SCL members and delegates from around the world. In order to ensure its success the SCL will be making available a limited number of elite sponsorship packages. If any of you would be interested in discussing sponsorship packages for this prestigious event please contact Frances Whitehead at franceswhitehead@scl.org.uk

 CIC

Following the talks on the contract given in London last October and in Edinburgh at the beginning of November, the CIC Consultants' Contract and CIC Scope of Services was published on 10th December.  Further information can be obtained from CIC (www.cic.org.uk).

Advocacy Course

The recent SCL Advocacy Course was a great success.  This popular course gives solicitors who are members of the SCL the opportunity to practise and develop their budding advocacy skills during weekly evening sessions.  The Society would like to thank Mr Justice Ramsey and Mr Justice Coulson who kindly acted as judges for the course and Vicky Lee who acted as the highly efficient clerk to the Court.  Thanks also go to the attendees of the course:  Emma Laverty, Adrian Barratt, Nadine Emsley, Steve Nichol, Hannah Bleakley, David Toscano, James Reid and Deirdre NiFhloinn.  We have received excellent feedback on the course.

The Society is pleased to announce that it will be holding another Advocacy Training Course again this autumn.  It will be run at a location in central London over five evening sessions during November/December.  The course is open only to SCL members who are solicitors and will entitle each advocate to claim 12.5 CPD hours.  For further details, contract vicky.lee@dundas-wilson.com 

How to register on the website as a member

In order to get members’ access to the website you must register online as a member.  Registration is easy.

Go to the website homepage www.scl.org.uk click Member Registration (listed below the Member Login box on the right hand side of the homepage) and enter your details and a username and password of your own choosing.  Your membership number is also asked for (if you don’t know it, then admin can tell you).
  
Thereafter, you can simply log onto the website using your username and password.  When you log in you will see a navigation link to 'Members' which is where you can update your contact details, email subscriptions and data protection information – and where you can choose to have the newsletter emailed to you instead of (or as well as) receiving it by post.  This is where you can also search for information about other SCL members who have agreed for their data to be accessible to other members on the website – the total of those who have given permission is now nearly 1,000 members.

University of Manchester

The Development and Alumni Relations Office at the University of Manchester is trying to find as many  'lost alumni' as possible.  If you are a graduate from the University who has never had, or is no longer receiving, a copy of the alumni magazine it is because they do not have your current contact details.  You are therefore invited to register on their new interactive alumni website www.manchester.ac.uk/yourmanchester  where you can update your contact details, search for friends, register for events, and more.  Alternatively, contact Hannah Taylor-Johnson at alumni@manchester.ac.uk or 0161 275 7230.

New Members

Finally, we are pleased to welcome the many new members who joined the Society in January:

Richard Appuhn, Rome
Bhalindra Bath, Bournemouth
Jeremy Brittenden, London                            
Karl Cleife, Warminster, Wiltshire
Ed Cooke, London                                         
William R Copeland, Johannesburg, South Africa
Tom Daly, Farnham, Surrey                           
Demetris Demetriou, Nicosia, Cyprus
Ronald Duncan, Doha, Qatar 
Waleed El Nemr, Dokki, Egypt
Patrick Ellis, Pretoria, South Africa                 
Alastair Farr, London
John Findlay, Guildford                                             
Brian Forsyth, York
Nicholas Gallier, Derby                                              
Neil Gouldson, Doha, Qatar
Nicholas Hamilton, Bangkok, Thailand                      
Diana Harvey, London
Kimberly Hurtado, Wauwatosa, USA             
Ian Clady Seymour Jones, Edenbridge
Dennis Kakol, Paeonian Springs, USA                       
Yeekee Ku, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Wai Wong, London                                        
Phil Loots, Perth, Australia
William Lord, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
Michael Matheou, London
James McCarthy, London                               
Avril McIntyre, Doha, Qatar
Mark Mills, London                                        
Harshad Muhammed, Dubai UAE
Matthew Needham-Laing, Guildford              
Andrew Nicoll, London
Rita Paul, London                                           
Jo Phillips, London
Alexandra Price, Cambridge                           
John Priestley, London
Roger Quick, Brisbane, Australia                    
David Ross, Kitchener, Canada
Shapna Roy, London                                      
Jitendra Mohan Sharma, New Delhi, India
Martin Tiffin, Bournemouth                           
Adrian Walker, London
Robert Weatherley, Cambridge                                   
Mark Lawton, Cramlington, Northumberland
Thomas Wilson, Atlanta, USA            

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