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AEC Markets
AEC Experience
Experience: 25 years
Qualifications:
Year of Birth: 1938
Nationality: British
Languages: English, German, Welsh
Derek's career started in the local government sector, firstly as a trainee solicitor and then as a solicitor; in total a career span of seven years, during which was Assistant Town Clerk of Chelmsford, the county town of Essex. In 1969 entered the private sector construction industry, representing prominent construction groups culminating in the Channel Tunnel Contractors between 1991 and 1993 and again, in 1994, but as a self-employed consultant construction specialist lawyer. In November 1994, in a sense, re-entered the public sector by taking up an appointment with the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) as a construction specialist lawyer. In total has built up over 25 years experience as a construction specialist lawyer with major international contractors serving the promoters of building, civil engineering, commercial development, defence, mass transit, mechanical and electrical engineering, mining and nuclear power projects, and 7 years with the promoter of, and procurer of contracts for, one of the biggest undertakings of its kind in the world in the last 15 years. That is, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. Experience in the commercial, financing and contractual aspects of project promotion, procurement, construction management and different forms of resolving contentious issues gained within the multi - discipline environment, including design and construct, of major construction groups and public sector organisations on major projects of national and international importance. Has advised clients seeking to contract, and contracting, in Britain, Europe, North and South America, the Far East and Africa and on disputes arising from such contracts.
During the period 1962 to 1966 worked as an Articled Clerk to the Town Clerk of the unitary County Borough of Newport, gaining expertise in council work ranging from: the negotiation and drafting of purchasing, supply and construction contracts, to conveyancing, general civil work and furnishing legal advisory services to various committees. Admitted as a Solicitor in 1966 and subsequently worked for the Newport Borough Council undertaking similar duties and additionally handled prosecutions relating tc) various council offences, tenancy debts and related matters. This was followed by appointment as Assistant Town Clerk of Chelmsford in 1967, involving all aspects of legal work related to the acquisition of land for, development, compulsory purchase, conveyancing and town planning. In late 1968 joined the London Borough of Havering, again as a solicitor, with a similar spectrum of duties and responsibilities; at this stage, after turning down promotion, decided to leave the Borough Council environment, subsequently joining Peter Williams and Struel in 1969, being appointed a partner shortly afterwards. At this stage of career gained first real exposure to commercial, mining, civil engineering, contracting, building and related, matters, subsequently leaving to join a major client.
The UK subsidiary of an international group, the company was particularly active in major building contracting, deep, coal, mineral and metal mine design, construction and development, speculative house building, plant hire, design and consultancy work, mechanical and electrical engineering, constructional equipment manufacture, civil engineering geological investigations and geotechnical reporting and advice. Bidding for and contracting to carry out a range of building construction, roads, bridges, hydro - electric projects, dams, water tunnels and shafts, frequently working in joint ventures, or consortia with other international and local companies such as Shaft Sinkers of South Africa, Hochtief of Germany, PEC Engineering and Mines Des Potass D'Alsace of France, Taylor Woodrow, Tarmac and Wimpey. Tunnels were constructed by: drill and blast; various tunnel boring machine and road header methods, including the New Austrian Tunnelling Method; guided mole methods and under compressed air; using freezing and grouting techniques and all forms of lining. Shafts were sunk conventionally, using grouting and ground freezing techniques, raise bore and blind shaft drilling techniques and all forms of lining, as were underground bunkers. Building construction included housing (public and private), shopping malls, schools, hospitals, offices etc. Appointed as Group Solicitor of Thyssen (Great Britain) Limited, also acted as occasional adviser to Thyssen Schachtbau GmbH in Germany and its American, Australian and Canadian subsidiaries for which six weeks tuition in conversational German was undertaken in Germany. During this period acted as observer in a court case in New Mexico concerning the Carlsbad WIP Project. The scope of legal involvement is covered generally in the attached Appendix.
In association with a colleague, formed practice in Swansea to provide, inter alia, a specialist construction law service, but soon realised that Swansea was not the base from which to start such a specialised practice.
The former is a very large, and well known, company, particularly with regard to its international activities and its involvement on the Channel Tunnel project, with activities covering every aspect of:- building construction; civil engineering related construction; geotechnical investigations and reporting; electrical, mechanical, heating and ventilation engineering; structural engineering; design and consultancy contracts; open cast coal and metal mining; marine engineering; large scale commercial developments of all types; nuclear power plant construction; private finance initiative and build - own - operate transfer (BOOT) type concessions and its services to the defence sector. Appointed as Senior Legal Adviser, also acted as Company Secretary to Taylor Woodrow Civil Engineering Limited. Operated across a very broad spectrum of activities including claims preparation and analysis on multi - million pound projects, and the scope is again covered in the Appendix attached hereto. In the autumn of 1991 seconded from Taylor Woodrow to Trans - Manche Link, the Anglo / French contractors on the Channel Tunnel, to assist in the research and preparation of multi - million and billion pound claims for submission to a Dispute Review Panel and international arbitration arising from ground conditions, variations and general non - performance aspects of the £10 billion project. Returned to Taylor Woodrow in February 1993, and left them at the end of March 1994 to form a specialist construction law consultancy.
From mid - June acted as a Consultant to the Channel Tunnel contractors, continuing where previously left off, initially on a fixed 3 month term with possible extensions, if required and agreed to by both parties, and to the Taylor Woodrow Group.
Joined LHDA as a construction specialist lawyer on a two-year contract, subject to extension by agreement, which was renewed for another two years from I November 1996, further extended for two years from 1 November 1998 and by the current one year contract which ends in October 2001. LHDA is the statutory corporation formed by Lesotho, under Treaty obligations with South Africa, to implement, operate and maintain, in Lesotho, a system of dams and tunnels designed to store water in Lesotho and transfer it to the Gauteng region of South Africa. The project known as the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is currently one of the biggest operation of its kind in the world. On arrival, the Phase IA dams and tunnels were under construction, as was the power station, which will use the water en - route to South Africa to generate 72MW of electricity in Lesotho. Concurrently, contracts for the construction of the roads, power lines telecommunications and other advance infrastructure works needed to construct the Phase lB dam tunnels and diversion weir were being negotiated and let; requests for proposals for engineering, environmental and allied consultancy services, insurance broking; finance raising; specialist external legal advisory services and telecommunication were prepared. Tenders and proposals received were evaluated and negotiated, the negotiations in teams of mixed disciplines, and contracts were awarded. The preparation of documents upon which to invite tenders for the construction of the dam, tunnels and diversion weir on Phase lB were prepared, the returned tenders were evaluated and the contracts awarded after detailed negotiations. At the same time hearings of the additional / alternative dispute resolution processes introduced into the Phase 1A dam and tunnels contracts have been held, with attention having been given to the refinement of the way they are being conducted. Many disputes have become the subject of notices to commence arbitration. Attempts at amicable settlement, using a DRB process in some instances, are being made. If they are unsuccessful in any case, arbitration will commence. The rules of arbitration in some instances will be those of the International Chamber of Commerce, and in others, UNCITRAL. One such arbitration has commenced under ICC rules. In addition, refinement to the Treaty between Lesotho and South Africa, with a view to a further protocols to its provisions, are under discussion; as is the reorganisation of the LHDA with the assistance of management consultant's advice, under contracts prepared and concluded in the period. In the course of preparing the tender documents for Phase 1 B, socio - economic provisions to be satisfied by the appointed Contractor have been designed and introduced, supported by innovative practical contractual powers in the employer to deal with the contractor's default in these areas. The innovations and supporting powers are designed to minimise the, often misguided, mischievous and unwarranted, increasing opposition to major projects and attempt to measure the social and environmental costs which promoters of such projects must expect to pay contractors as part of their prices.
Public acquisition of land, planning, development and public health / environment related matters.
Pre - tender advice on an increasing variety of tender documents for bills of quantities, schedule, measured term,
cost plus and target cost contracts, including ICE main contract and sub -contract conditions for civil engineering work in the UK, and FIDIC conditions for overseas work; the various forms of the JCT main and sub contract conditions for building work in the U.K. and managing of building works; the South African Joint Building Contracts Committee form; the I. Chem F. forms of contracts, particularly for water processing and treatment contracts, the various model forms of contract for use in the mechanical and electrical engineering industry, with or without erection on site, including the FIDIC and model forms of the Institution of Electrical Engineering, GCIWorks 1, the British Coal, CEGB and Nuclear Electric standard conditions; the Contractor's Plant Association Conditions of Hire, and the ACE, RIBA, FIDIC, EIB, EU, World Bank Conditions of Engagement. o Advising on conditions of contract for major oil refinery and petro -chemical management, turn - key and oil exploration construction contracts, negotiating and drafting appropriate contracts where necessary, with the likes of Bechtel, Badgers, Lummus, BP and Conoco.
Advising on the conditions of contract produced by major commercial enterprises such as Sainsbury and Tesco in relation to building contracts in the U.K.
Advising and negotiating design, build, own and/or operate and transfer (BOOT) contracts for infrastructure investments, such as light railways and the rolling stock associated therewith.
Advising on the various, and very varied, sub - contract and works contracts of major British contractors.
Advising, and working in teams with technical and financial specialists in the preparations of invitations to tender and requests for proposals, and on problems arising during the execution of contracts and on the preparation and defence of claims. The emphasis of these activities has been, and remains, pro-active, with a view to obtaining the best and earliest understanding of the factual, technical, contractual and legal issues so as to be able to produce the clearest possible contracts and to assess potential rights and liabilities as early possible; in an attempt to avoid the inconvenience and hidden, and patent, expense of litigation / arbitration.
Advising, drafting pleadings, instructing counsel, advocacy etc when the pursuit or defence of claims unavoidably involves arbitration, including arbitration under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce or UNCITRAL, or litigation.
Drafting and negotiating joint venture and consortium agreements with UK and non- UK participants for major civil engineering and infrastructure projects in the UK, mining projects overseas and commercial ventures both in the UK and overseas. Advising on international joint venture / consortium arrangements entered into by putative tenderers.
Drafting and negotiating advance payment bonds for "security"; retention bonds performance bonds, advance payment bonds, cross - indemnity documents and parent company guarantees.
Dealing with package deal contracts for building work, negotiating and drafting design and construct contracts and negotiating and drafting contacts with British and foreign contractors, suppliers and consultants.
Drafting and updating forms of general sub - contracts and forms of labour - only sub - contract for clients.
Vetting of agreements concerned with UK and EEC funded technical research and development.
Acquiring large amounts of land for speculative house development, drafting contracts, leases and conveyances for and disposing of the houses; advising on and negotiating agreements for the construction and development of roads and, sewers to be adopted by local authorities and related matters.
Negotiating and drafting major variation, acceleration and novation agreements, in addition to collateral warranties, duty of care agreements and commercial leases.
Negotiating and drafting consultancy contracts using and adapting EU, FIDIC and World Bank basic forms for consultants in various disciplines, such as: civil engineering, electrical and mechanical engineering, architecture and telecommunications, environment, finances, insurance broking and external lawyers, with emphasis, in the latter case, on managing performance and costs.
Advising on raising finance though multi - lateral, bilateral, export credit and commercial banking sources and vetting the documentation associated therewith.
Advising on the application of the contract provisions, and procurement, procedures of funding agencies such as the World Bank, the European Union, and the like, and devising procedures for conducting conciliation.
Acting as adviser and observer to the Employer in the preparation for and presentation of the Employer's case in disputes to be first heard by Dispute Review Boards (DRB) and aimed at obviating lengthy and expensive arbitration.
Developing rules and procedures to govern the preparation for, and conduct of, DRB's - to provide discipline without loss of flexibility and informality - and to govern the form and context of the recommendations.
Developing simple, clear, but comprehensive, documents for buying in the services of smaller, more local, contractors to undertake small civil engineering, building and materials handling contracts.
Acting as Secretary to a task committee established to make recommendations about the re - organisation of the internal management and working structures and relationships of a statutory corporation; putting to use industrial relations qualifications and organisational experience acquired in the private and public sectors, including employer I trade union relationships.
With other evaluation team members, evaluating tenders and bids received and negotiating contracts.
Participating in and proffering advice and drafting skills on protocols to a Treaty taking account of governance issues, tax, public international and domestic constitutional law issues.
Devising and overseeing an information technology based system of document registration, storage and controlled release.
Strong connections with specialist construction and commercial law firms throughout the world, accustomed to advising, overseeing or managing legal aspects of activities throughout the world, and preparing and delivering seminars on the various standard forms of contracts.
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