Robert Fenwick Elliott

Robert was the founding partner in 1980 of the London law firm of Fenwick Elliott, and remains a consultant to that firm.  He is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of South Australia, a Lawyer of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales.

Dispute Resolution Experience

He has been involved - typically as lead lawyer - in the resolution of many disputes involving in aggregate many hundreds of millions of dollars. Most of these have been in the field of construction or engineering disputes.

The projects have involved the construction, inter alia, of combined cycle and nuclear power stations, pipe lines and pumping stations, marine terminals, ships, FPSOs, harbours, dams, reservoirs, hospitals, factories, office buildings, shopping malls, hotels, housing developments, libraries, sports facilities, roads, bridges, tunnels, mines and security facilities. They have involved work in many jurisdictions, including Argentina, Brazil, Christmas Island, Egypt, England, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Jersey, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, New South Wales, Queensland, Pakistan, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, South Australia, Spain, Syria, Ukraine, USA, Victoria, Wales, West Indies and Western Australia.

Litigation

He has litigated many cases, mostly in the Supreme Court in London and typically in the Technology and Construction Court, and appeared there many times as advocate.

Delay Analysis

He has for many years had a particular interest and expertise in delay analysis.  In the 1980's (before the advent of the later generations of commercially available software such as Primavera) he led the development of a software package specifically designed for retrospective delay analysis purposes. Since that time he has led a number of delay analysis teams, and has recently prepared and presented a Masterclass on the topic in Adelaide.

Adjudication

Chapter 5 of his book, Building Contract Disputes: Practice and Precedents is devoted to adjudication, a process of resolving disputes in the construction industry first given statutory force in England and Wales by the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. In short, the system involves the resolution of any construction or engineering dispute within about 6 weeks. The loser has to write a cheque, but has the right to re litigate or arbitrate in full; in practice, this right is rarely exercised and the parties are content to abide by the adjudicator’s decision.

Pre-1996, he was involved in the UK Government consultation for and contributed to debate of the legislation, and was the principal draftsman of the ORSA Adjudication Rules, the first and, for 2 years, the only compliant standard form set of rules. He has trained adjudicators for the CIoB and TeCSA, and is accredited as an adjudicator by the CIC, CIoB and TeCSA. Whilst in full time practice as a solicitor in London, he represented one of the parties or fulfilled the role of adjudicator many times, in disputes for very substantial sums.

He remains available for suitable adjudication work, particularly in the Pacific Rim.
He is a convener of the Adjudication Forum of Australasia, a group of those involved in the several variants of the adjudication process that have now been introduced in Australia and New Zealand.

Robert is registered as an Adjudicator in the Northern Territory under section 52 of the Construction Contracts (Security of Payments) Act 2004.

Mediation

Chapter 4 of his book, Building Contract Disputes: Practice and Precedents is devoted to ADR (alternative dispute resolution) techniques, including mediation, mini-trial and hybrid techniques.

He is accredited as a mediator by IAMA and CEDR, and remains available for suitable adjudication or dispute review board work, particularly in the Pacific Rim. To date, he has never failed, when acting as a mediator, to bring the parties to an agreement. Unlike many English trained mediators, he favours a balance between the evaluative and the facilitative schools of thought.

Arbitration

Chapter 11 of his book, Building Contract Disputes: Practice and Precedents is devoted to arbitration, including international arbitration under the ICC Arbitration Rules.  He has conducted many arbitration procedures on behalf of clients both domestically and in the international ICC arbitration process.

Tribunals

He has chaired a number of appeal and disciplinary tribunals for Croquet Australia

Pre-Action Protocol

Chapter 7 of his book, Building Contract Disputes: Practice and Precedents is devoted to the English Construction and Engineering Pre Action Protocol, of which he was the original author.