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Contract Management

Specialised advice on the administration of construction and infrastructure contracts, from commencement to close-out. The work draws on the perspective of someone who decides disputes: reading the contract as it will be read later, once a controversy exists, and organising from the outset the records, notices and deadlines that will support the party’s position. The reading is commercial and preventive, aimed at keeping the contract running rather than at preparing litigation.

Services+
  • Contract set-upReview and adaptation of construction and infrastructure contracts, including on the FIDIC and NEC standard forms, with attention to the risk matrix, the claims regime and the dispute resolution clause.
  • Contract administrationSupport during execution: discipline of notices and time bars, document control, treatment of variations, time and cost claims, and interaction with the Engineer or the contract manager.
  • Dispute avoidanceDesign and implementation of Dispute Boards and other avoidance mechanisms, preparation of the parties for the method, and assessment of when to bring a difference to the board, and when not to.
  • Claims assessmentIndependent review of the consistency of claims, whether the client’s or the counterparty’s, with analysis of programme, causation and supporting records, before the decision to escalate.
  • Governance and trainingIn-company training of engineering, procurement and legal teams in contract management, and design of the internal routine for deciding on claims and variations.
Where the experience comes from+
  • Dispute BoardsFifteen appointments as chair and as member, under FIDIC and NEC, in five countries. That practice shows, case by case, which records support a claim and which undermine it.
  • Rio 2016Head Legal for Infrastructure at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee, responsible for the legal framework of procurement and for the event’s dispute avoidance programme.
  • FIDIC and NECClaims and Disputes Course and Contract Management and Administration Course, FIDIC, 2025; NEC Foundation Award; NEC4 Managing Time and the Programme; NEC3 and NEC4 ECC Contracts Compared.
  • TeachingDirection and teaching of FGV Projetos’ in-company Contract Management training at Ecorodovias, and of the Contract Lifecycle Management module in LEC’s executive programme.
How we work+

The engagement is sized to the contract and to the stage of the project. It may be continuous support during execution, a discrete intervention on a specific claim, or the initial structuring of the contractual regime, before signature. Where a dispute already exists, the independence required by the neutral functions is checked before any commitment.