Expertise
Caroline is a highly-respected construction and engineering disputes lawyer with over 30 years’ experience in litigation, arbitration, adjudication, and ADR processes, including mediation and expert determination.
She advises clients across the engineering and construction industry, with particular expertise in complex technical disputes, utilities, nuclear decommissioning, tunnelling, pipelines, and major multi-party commercial and infrastructure projects.
Caroline also provides proactive project advisory support to help prevent issues on live projects from escalating into formal proceedings. She is praised for her strategic management of expert evidence in defects, prolongation, and additional cost claims. She has extensive domestic and international experience, including three years in the Middle East where she established a successful construction practice, and is widely recognised as a market-leading, credible, and practical adviser in the construction disputes arena.
Caroline is a CEDR Accredited Mediator and was Chair of TECSA (Technology and Construction Solicitors Association) for an unprecedented 5.5 years and led its rebranding, strategic review and streamlining of its adjudication nomination and membership processes so applications are made online.
In 2024, Caroline was awarded the prestigious Clare Edwards Award in recognition of her professional excellence and outstanding contribution to the legal profession serving the construction and infrastructure industry.
Experience
- Supported a major UK contractor in a high-value dispute with a utility company regarding the provision of residential and commercial fibre-optic broadband across the UK. Advised on the commercial implications of the dispute, helping the client navigate thousands of low-value claims accrued over a five-year contract and providing strategic guidance ahead of an imminent contract re-negotiation.
- Advised a leading energy supplier on two arbitrations arising out of the extension of desalination and energy plants in the Gulf.
- Advised a UK water utility on multiple disputes, including two complex tunnelling projects in southern England. Provided guidance on sensitive environmental issues (e.g., slurry removal) and technical challenges, including geotechnical and unforeseen ground conditions, as well as mechanical issues arising during tunnelling. Assisted in both expert determination and arbitration processes, helping the client manage risk and achieve favourable outcomes.
- Advising a leading developer in adjudication proceedings concerning claims for delay, loss and expense.
- Assisted a hotel operator in challenging an adjudicator’s decision in 2018/2019. Advised on multiple grounds, including breaches of natural justice and incorrect interpretation of a side agreement. Provided strategic guidance throughout the process, resulting in the adjudicator’s decision being successfully overturned.
- Supported a major UK developer when a potentially catastrophic structural failure occurred at a prime site. Worked closely with the property asset team on risk assessments, coordinated communications with insurers, and negotiated with the design & build contractor to remediate the defects. Advised on and helped bring a claim for uninsured losses exceeding GBP3m, which was successfully settled in 2018.
- Advised one of the UK’s largest construction companies on numerous disputes over three decades. Helped the client successfully defend multi-million-pound claims, including: defects in diaphragm walling at a shopping centre; disputes over the use of ground anchors at a retail park in Cardiff; alleged high chloride content in concrete at a multi-storey car park exposed to de-icing salts; defective cladding at an office development; and claims under a PFI contract for the refurbishment and construction of five new build schools in Northern England. Provided strategic guidance throughout, mitigating risk and achieving favourable outcomes in multiple complex proceedings.