Before Valentine’s Day is upon us, let me act as your contract fairy godmother with a sprinkle of magic dust (aka sensible legal resources) help change your love/hate relationship with legal documents. Read the full edition here » If you want to use letters of intent successfully and avoid that
Beyond considering the role of contract visualization, Stefania Passera’s doctoral dissertation Beyond the wall of contract text (2017) she also looks at the functions of contract. Her conclusions are critical for contract creators like me who believe that the purpose of a contract is not merely to safeguard rights and
I love the Mr Men books by Roger Hargreaves. Not so much for their stories (bad turns to good) but for the simplicity of the illustrations. As Roger Hargreaves’ wikipedia entry says the books were simple and humorous stories, with brightly coloured, boldly drawn illustrations … part of popular culture
5 years ago I wrote a post about whether you could trust an employer with your retention. In the light of Carillion’s pending/actual insolvency* (delete according to when you read this), I wanted to clarify the legal position on retention. For simplicity the employer refers to the paying party –
I would like you to (1) learn from the failures of others (the quickest, cheapest and least painful approach) and (2) embrace the idea that failure is not optional – it is your best friend. Lesson: check the technical data In November 1999, NASA lost a $125m satellite, the Mars
Rather than making resolutions to do meaningless stuff, this tips sheet introduces my top 10 things to stop doing and one key thing to start doing. Read the full edition here » One thing you could start to do in 2018 is to learn to embrace failure… Change is a
Getting paid is a perennial problem in construction. The Construction Acts 1996 and 2009 were meant to help. They were meant to prevent employers and main contractors withholding monies due without any/good reasons. But do they? The evidence In 2018, the Federation of Master Builders lambasted employers and main contractors
In my column for Construction Manager Magazine, I have provided a series of tips for anyone reading, writing or reviewing construction contracts. What should you do? Use your contracts as tools to help you complete the project, not as an expensive paper-weight [never shove your contracts in a drawer, October
In his Forbes article (the Most Valuable Business Commodity: Trust), David Williams proposed that trust within an organisation existed when 9 behaviours or actions were evident. Six of these apply directly to the construction supply network. The behaviours are signs of an emotionally intelligent project team. Behaviours to reinforce Be
In EQ in Contracts I asked whether any contracts refer to the need for a good standard of emotional intelligence (EQ) for the parties. Good EQ is critical to meet the demands of the construction industry. Elizabeth Kavanagh, head of research and innovation at Stride Treglown, emailed to say that