Any non contentious construction lawyers about?

[MrsHedrun]

This is a tad cheeky but I have been contacted about a job after an extended maternity break (9 years...). I had assumed that I wouldn't be going back because of where we live now, but in fact the job is something I think I could do. I wondered if someone kind could tell me how much has changed in the last 9 years?!

I am probably being unreasonable.

I am hoping not much has changed!
When I left it was mainly jct or other standard forms, prof appmts, c/w
The most recent legislation was the contracts rights of 3rd party act, which most were contracting out of
No major changes in contract and tort for a while

If anyone could help I would be so grateful. Do I have to put myself on LinkedIn? At the time I left no one was on LinkedIn!
Thank you very much

Not a lawyer but:

The Construction (Design & Management) Regulations came in force in 2015

There have been a few judgments regarding Pay Less Notices in recent years.

You’d soon get up to speed - honestly. A good friend went back to tax law after a 13 year break and was fine! Be confident. And yes you will need LinkedIn but it’s fairly straightforward 😊.

@comefromaway thank you very much. I am guessing these replace the earlier CDM regs. Are you a project manager?

@haggisburger thank you for your words of encouragement!

I work in accounts for a construction company. I send the Valuations to our Main Contractors & issue Pay Less notices to our sub-contractors plus monitor the PQQ's. We use a construction lawyer but I'm the one who translates some of the contracts we receive into plain English for the Project Managers! I also monitor the PQQ's.

NEC3 used for a lot of big projects.

It’s NEC4 now...

New and improved

NEC ... delving deep into my memory now - that wasn't the one written entirely in the present tense was it? If so the experience traumatised me so much I have almost entirely blocked it out. If it was that one, presumably the improvements in the NEC4 were to do with grammar, clarity and enforceability?

I do like the nec3.

It is written in very plain non legalese.

But, the improvements... nope 😁

9 years is a very long break OP. I’m sure you’d be fine and would pick up the work again quickly, but a lot of firms would be wary about taking you on, and you might need to go for very junior roles to begin with. Whereabouts are you living?

@YouUnlockedTheGateAnd what are the improvements? (just to save me having to buy a copy at this stage!)

@DinoGreen I have been contacted about jobs surprisingly enough - this thread was really just a cheeky attempt to find out what had changed (industry and case law and statutory) in the last 9 years so I could pretend I knew what I was talking about! Are you a construction lawyer?

@MrsHedrun that’s great then! I can’t really help I’m afraid, I’m a litigator in a regional firm and I sometimes help out our construction team with contentious work when they’re very busy but I don’t get involved in non-contentious at all. I don’t think it would take you long to get up to speed with any changes though. Have you had a look for any courses that might bring you up to date? CLT or MBL always have loads of “annual construction briefing” type seminars (well they’ll all be webinars at the moment) that would flag any major changes for you.

@dinogreen thank you - good idea re CLT. If you help out with construction litigation you might be aware of any significant contract or tort cases over the last ten years?

@Comefromaway I am sorry I missed your reply. Your job sounds very busy! I worked mainly for "employer" or funder clients, and so only covered cdm and payment provisions in contracts rather than getting involved in using them, and only really encountered contractors in negotiations, so it was and is always interesting to find out about what it was like to work for one. They always seemed quite cut throat, though maybe that was just the negotiation stance!

The only good improvement in the NEC4 is it’s now written in gender neutral language! About time too, it pissed me off so much that the PMs, Employers etc were always ‘he’. I know it’s standard in contracts, but is still annoying.

Early Contractor Involvement is a big thing now, particularly in public sector projects, so the procurement process can be very drawn out. Lots of buzz words, collaboration, sustainability, community liaison is becoming more and more important in tenders. H&S and environment, more emphasis on making things better rather than just preventing incidents, so occ health, positive improvements to local society etc. Bids are more and more about the bells and whistles rather than just price and programme.

I will confess, i haven’t yet used nec4. Yet.

It was announced to great fanfare that we would be switching. I did a day training event.... then....

Yeah, got sidelined.

Aparently no big changes, just a lot of small tweaks.