John has worked internationally for in excess of 25 years in North America, South America, and in Western, Central and Eastern Europe on a wide range of projects across the energy, nuclear, roads, rail, marine, infrastructure, automotive, industrial, residential and commercial sectors, both with Employers, and with Tier 1/Tier 2 Contractors as well as in-house.
In recent years, John has been appointed to advise clients on a series of primarily contentious matters involving major projects, both internationally and in the UK and including: working as part of the arbitration team on a multi-billion Euro dispute for the OL3 nuclear power station in Finland; working with the joint venture management team to formulate and prosecute a transportation claim against the Government of Canada on the New Champlain Bridge in Montreal; managing a team for the preparation of multiple claims concerning acceleration, extension of time, delay and disruption, variations and additional works on a guaranteed maximum price contract for the JV consortium on the high speed rail link between Cologne and Frankfurt; working with the arbitration team for a German shipyard on claims against both the designer and Russian owner; drafting position papers for a UK contractor on a dispute regarding delays, disruption and additional works to onshore convertor stations for an offshore wind farm; and working with the in-house legal and project team, as well as other support functions, for a UK contractor in prosecuting a successful counter-claim against a nuclear reprocessing company.
As well as his involvement in contentious work, John also advises clients on completing contractual and commercial arrangements for construction projects. In recent years this non contentious work has included: assisting with and advising on the formulation of selectivity criteria and dealer contracts for Nissan Europe in compliance with the updated Block Exemption Regulations; formulating contracts for the appointment of designers for a Europe-wide visual identity project on behalf of Honda Europe; and drafting the Works Information for Key Stage 6 of the M4 Corridor around Newport. John regularly advises on “problem projects”, which require high level strategic advice, both legal and commercial, which is designed to develop and implement a pathway allowing projects to be brought back on track. John provides training to project members on contract and commercial issues, and he is a fluent German speaker.
