Crispin Winser KC to speak at Vinson & Elkins Middle East Construction, Engineering and Infrastructure Conference
13th Oct 2025
Crispin Winser KC will be speaking at the Vinson & Elkins Middle East Construction, Engineering and Infrastructure Conference taking place in Dubai on Thursday 16 October 2025. The 2025 edition of this annual conference, titled “Watts Driving Change? Navigating Change in a World of Rising Energy Demands and Sustainability Targets”, will explore key issues in construction disputes.
Crispin will speak on two panels. The first, “At the Dispute Stage” will be chaired by Roberta Downey (Partner and Head of the International Construction group, Vinson & Elkins) and will focus on challenges when project relationships fall apart and conduct is openly adversarial, covering:
- What constitutes a “change” – eg natural “design development” versus “change in design”, same work but changes to methods or sequence of working, etc;
- resolving disputed claims for hundreds / thousands of small value change orders cost effectively; and
- the growing trend of challenges to arbitrators.
The second, “Mid-Project / Execution Stage” will be chaired by Nabeel Ikram (Partner, Vinson & Elkins) and will focus on live project management – how to make relationships work day-to-day, as well as practical tips on how to deal with problems before they escalate and put in place protections should you later need them, covering:
- the familiar situation where existing scope creeps into scope change;
- the challenges and disputes that arise in valuing change orders – with guidance on collecting the necessary records to substantiate the time spent and costs incurred in implementing them; and
- the extent to which scope might be omitted or expanded using change order machinery.
