Crispin Winser KC

Construction & Engineering

Recommended in Legal 500, Chambers UK, Chambers Global and Who’s Who Legal

Crispin’s experience ranges from residential building disputes to major international projects. He has been instructed in cases concerning residential extensions and conversions, houses, hotels, hospitals, apartment blocks, schools, housing estates, shopping malls, leisure centres, factories, power stations, process plants, water treatment works, roads, railways, airports, tunnels, micro-tunnels, pipelines and Oil and Gas installations (both onshore and offshore). He has dealt with many of the standard forms (e.g. JCT, ICE, NEC, FIDIC, IChemE) and a range of bespoke contracts.  He is one of the authors of Emden’s Construction Law.

Crispin is a TECBAR accredited adjudicator, acts for and advises adjudicating parties and appears in the TCC on enforcement proceedings. Reported adjudication cases include:

• WRW Construction v Datblygau Davies Developments [2020] EWHC 1965 (TCC)
• Dawnus Construction Holdings v Marsh Life [2017] EWHC 1066 (TCC); 172 Con LR 162; [2017] CILL 3977
• South Coast Construction v Iverson Road [2017] EWHC 61 (TCC); [2017] 1 All ER (Comm) 653; [2017] BLR 169
• Imtech Inviron v Loppingdale Plant [2014] EWHC 4006 (TCC); [2015] CILL 3613; [2015] BLR 183
• Ellis Building Contractors v Goldstein [2011] EWHC 269 (TCC); [2011] CILL 3049
• OSC Building Services v Interior Dimensions Contracts [2009] EWHC 248 (TCC); [2009] CILL 2688
• Allen Wilson Joinery v Privetgrange Construction [2008] EWHC 2802 (TCC); [2009] TCLR 1; 123 Con LR 1

Selected Cases

• Sheffield Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust v Hadfield Healthcare Partnerships & ors [2023] EWHC 644 (TCC); [2023] BLR 333 – lead counsel for the FM services contractor in a multi-party TCC claim for over £17m arising out of fire safety defects in a PFI hospital.
• Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust v Lendlease Construction & ors – representing the roofing contractor in a multi-party TCC claim for over £140m arising out of a PFI project for the design, construction and facilities management of a hospital. One of The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of 2022.
• WM Morrisons Supermarkets v Lorien Engineering Solutions & ors – lead counsel for the main contractor in a multi-party TCC claim for over £34m in respect of the allegedly defective refurbishment of an abattoir leading to a substantial loss of profit. One of The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of 2021.
• Acting for the employer in a €10m ICC arbitration relating to the disputed termination of a contract for the construction of a medical facility. FIDIC Yellow Book. Maltese seat and Maltese law. 5 day evidential hearing.
• Acting for the employer in a $100m ad hoc international arbitration concerning the construction of an 8-lane expressway. FIDIC Red Book. Middle Eastern seat and substantive law of the Middle Eastern state. 13 day evidential hearing.
• Eco World – Ballymore Embassy Gardens v Dobler UK [2021] EWHC 2207 (TCC); [2021] BLR 687; [2021] TCLR 7; 197 Con LR 108 – representing the employer in an important decision on the enforceability of LADs where the employer had taken partial possession of the works but the contract contained no mechanism for reducing the level of LADs.
• Doosan Enpure v Interserve Construction [2019] EWHC 2497 (TCC); [2019] BLR 630 – acting for a contractor in a £5m dispute with its JV partner concerning the release of interim payments in respect of an upgrade to a water treatment works under an NEC3 Option C target cost contract.
• Acting for a contractor in a $400m LCIA arbitration relating to an oil and gas project in the Middle East. Bespoke contract. London seat and substantive law of the Middle Eastern state. 2 week evidential hearing. Issues included contractual interpretation, process engineering, delay analysis and quantum.
• Acting for a Middle Eastern government in a $500m ICC arbitration relating to the construction of an international airport. FIDIC Red Book. Middle Eastern seat and substantive law of the Middle Eastern state. 13 day evidential hearing. Issues included analysis and quantification of claims for extensions of time, prolongation and disruption costs.
• Acting for a state-owned oil company in a $multi-billion LCIA arbitration arising from an oil and gas project in the Middle East. Bespoke contract. London seat and substantive law of the Middle Eastern state. 2 week evidential hearing. Issues included contractual interpretation, engineering practice in the oil and gas industry and quantity surveying practice.
• Acting for a Middle Eastern government in a $750m ICC arbitration relating to the construction of an international airport. FIDIC Yellow Book. Middle Eastern seat and substantive law of the Middle Eastern state. 65 days of evidential hearings. Multiple claims involving complex issues relating to design obligations, architecture, structural and seismic engineering, fire safety engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, forensic delay analysis and quantum.
• Acting for a police authority in a £multi-million dispute concerning the construction of a new custody facility. Issues included design obligations, energy efficiency, mechanical and electrical engineering, loss and expense.
• Triuva Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft v Galliford Try v Alumet [2017] EWHC 275 (TCC) – acting for a contractor in a £3m claim arising out of alleged defects in glazing, curtain walling and cladding works to a ten-storey office building in Birmingham.
• Gray v Elite Town Management [2016] EWCA Civ 1318 – acting in a party wall dispute arising out of adjoining basement constructions in central London. Appeared as sole counsel in two week-long trials and in the Court of Appeal.
• Acting for the developer of a £250m project in central London in TCC proceedings involving multiple applications for injunctive relief and complex issues of law and geotechnical and structural engineering.
• Acting for a joint venture contractor in a £multi-million PFI dispute in the TCC and a related adjudication.
• Rohan & Ors v Daman Real Estate Capital Partners [2013] DIFC CA 005 and CA 006 – acting for purchasers in the DIFC (Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal) in a claim for AED 12m arising out of delay to a mixed-use development in Dubai.
• Acting for consulting engineers in a $12m DIAC arbitration.  Dubai seat and UAE substantive law. 4 day evidential hearing. Issues related to mechanical and electrical engineering and quantum.
• Inframatrix v Dean Construction [2012] EWCA Civ 64; 140 Con LR 59; [2012] 28 Const LJ 438; [2012] CILL 3145 – representing a developer in the TCC and in the Court of Appeal in relation to a £2m claim for defects in the construction of a specialist camera factory.
• Harrison & ors v Shepherd Homes [2011] EWHC 1811 (TCC); 27 Const LJ 709 – acting for the residents of a housing estate in a 5-week TCC trial successfully recovering damages for losses resulting from defective piled foundations.
• Acting for a developer in a $130m international arbitration concerning a hotel and condominium project in the Caribbean which suffered hurricane damage during the course of construction. London seat and substantive law of the Caribbean Island. 2 month evidential hearing.
• Acting for the Anglo-Japanese-Irish consortium that built the Dublin Port Tunnel in relation to claims before a DAB for delay, disruption, loss and expense totalling about 300m Euros. ICE 7^th edition. Irish seat and Irish substantive law. Multiple DAB hearings. Issues included ground conditions (involving geotechnical engineering), design strength, the design approvals procedure and the analysis and quantification of delay, disruption, loss and expense.

News

• Sky & Mace v Riverstone Managing Agency & Ors [2023] EWHC 1207 (Comm)
• Members of Chambers recognised by the Legal 500 EMEA 2023 for their construction expertise in the Middle East

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Events

• Dubai Arbitration Week, 14-18 November 2022
• David Sears QC and Crispin Winser to speak to the Society of Construction Law

Articles

• An Exercise in Utility: Liquidators Adjudicating Construction Disputes
• “When Insolvency Trumps Rough Justice: Injunctions and Stays of Execution of Adjudication Proceedings”, The Society of Construction Law

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Qualifications

• Registered practitioner in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)
• Major Scholar, Inner Temple
• MSc Construction Law & Dispute Resolution, King’s College London
• Dip Law, City University
• BA, Bristol University

Memberships

• British Japanese Law Association
• Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb)
• Commercial Bar Association
• LCIA European Users Council
• London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association
• Society of Construction Law (UK & Gulf)
• Technology & Construction Bar Association

Rankings

• Legal 500 2023 London Bar: recommended for Construction, Energy and International Arbitration
• Legal 500 2022 Middle East: the English Bar: recommended for Construction
• Chambers UK 2023: recommended for Construction, International Arbitration: Construction/Engineering and Professional Negligence: Technology & Construction
• Chambers Global 2022: recommended for Construction
• Who’s Who Legal 2022: national leader and future leader for Construction