Construction & Engineering
Athena has wide ranging experience of construction matters and is regularly instructed to advise and represent employers, contractors, sub-contractors and insurers in disputes (including adjudications) concerning delay, non-performance of contractual obligations, defective works and pay less notices. She is familiar with the main contract forms, including JCT, NEC and FIDIC.
Athena has been instructed as sole counsel and as a junior to others.
Selected Cases
- Assisting Andrew Bartlett KC and Isabel Hitching in Aspect Contracts (Asbestos) Ltd v Higgins Construction Plc [2015] UKSC 38, the leading case concerning recovery of payments made under adjudicators’ awards.
- Assisting Anna Laney in a case considering the meaning of “appropriate deductions” where an employer instructs alternative contractors to remedy faults not made good by the original contractor within the rectification period.
- Advising on the enforcement of adjudication awards (various claims).
- As junior counsel, advising a client as to the applicability and effects of various EU and UK sanctions on its business.
- Advising on the principles of procurement pursuant to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
- Advising and representing a sub-contractor in a claim for defective works.
- Advising and representing a sub-contractor as to the validity and effect of a pay less notice.
- Advising and representing a homeowner in a claim for defective works against an insolvent contractor.
- Advising and representing a homeowner defending a builder’s claim for unpaid invoices and counterclaiming for damages for poorly executed works.
Athena is a contributing author to Emden on Construction Law.
View full profile »Awards
- Lincolns Inn BPTC Lord Denning Scholarship (2010)
- Lincolns Inn Hardwicke Entrance Award (2009)
- Cambridge European Trusts Scholarship (2009)
- Trinity Hall Dr Cooper Law Studentship (2009)
- Trinity Hall Alan King-Hamilton Bursary for Excellence (2009)
- Winner of the Cambridge University De Smith Mooting Competition (2009)
- Winner of the Trinity Hall Law Society Moot (2006 & 2009)
News
- Athena Markides, Chair of the Young Barristers’ Committee, to co-chair at the Annual Bar & Young Bar Conference 2019
- Robert Stokell, Anna Laney, Daniel Shaw, and Athena Markides to lecture on advocacy at the University of Cambridge
Events
Articles
Qualifications
- BA (Hons), University of Cambridge (2005 – 2009)
- Erasmus Exhange, Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands (2007 – 2008)
- LLM, University of Cambridge (2009 – 2010)
- BPTC, BPP Law School (2010 – 2011)
Memberships
- COMBAR
- LCLCBA
- PNBA
- PIBA
- TECBAR
- European Circuit
Athena is also an elected member of the Bar Council and a member of the Young Bar Committee and EU Law Committee.
Recommendations
“Athena deciphers the critical issue really quickly and provides excellent technical and commercial advice that is easily explainable.”
Legal 500, 2025
“Athena is incredibly detailed and thorough and always manages to identify the key issues be they commercial or technical at a very early stage. Her advocacy and in particular communication is excellent. Athena is a go-to barrister.”
Legal 500, 2024
“A joy to work with – she has a great capacity for hard work, while remaining enthusiastic and responsive, regardless of pressure. Very bright and can be relied upon to produce work of very high quality within the required time frame.”
Legal 500, 2022
“Very bright, extremely conscientious and hardworking; she picks up issues and absorbs large volumes of information quickly and provides accurate, timely advice.”
Legal 500, 2021
