Fenwick Elliott has strengthened its Eastern Europe coverage after forming an association with Bucharest firm SDC & Partners (Soimulescu Dragan Costin), Romania's first construction law specialist. With our combined resources our firms have the largest and most highly rated construction law specialist teams in Romania, offering an integrated legal service to international clients operating or investing in the region.

SDC & Partners was established in 2005 as the first construction and engineering law specialist in Romania and has extensive experience in infrastructure and property development projects in Romania. All its senior lawyers specialise in construction law and have also developed specific experience in financing and banking, administrative, procurement and property law.

For more information about our association with SDC & Partners, please click here.

"Mediating Construction Disputes: An Evaluation of Existing Practice" is the full report of the 2006-2008 research, headed up by Nicholas Gould and Claire King of Fenwick Elliott and conducted by the Centre of Construction Law and Dispute Resolution at King's College London and the Technology and Construction Court. Much more has been written about the theory of mediation, and its proper place in the avoidance and resolution of disputes in construction, than about its actual use; this report combines hard detail about its practice within UK construction litigation with a summary of the existing knowledge about mediation in the common law world and about its relation to other formal and informal methods of dealing with construction disputes.

To download the report click here.

To download a summary of the key points of the report click here.

We are pleased to announce that Frederic Gillion, joined Fenwick Elliott as partner on 1 February 2010.

Frederic, formerly of Shadbolt & Co, has dual qualifications in English and French law . Much of Frederic's recent international work has involved acting for major contractors in Central and Eastern Europe. Another FIDIC specialist, he is a regular contributor to the Practical Law Company website, often speaks at seminars and also helps organise each year a one-day FIDIC conference in Bucharest. For more information about Frederic, please click here.

March's issue of the Dispatch considers two adjudication enforcement cases. In one, it was suggested that the adjudicator had been asked to decide more than one dispute in relation to two contracts. In the other, a party sought to challenge an adjudicator's decision because it did not reflect the parties' legal entitlement under the contract.

Following our successful and popular series of seminars last year we have pleasure announcing the dates for our 2010 Fenwick Elliott hosted seminars. Information regarding the content of these seminars will be posted closer to the dates.

Two articles by Simon Tolson on sustainability - an article which featured in The Guardian supplement, Sustainability and Innovative Construction, and some of the problems caused by conservation rules and listed buildings, are available.

Our Annual Review of the key legal developments over the past 12 months is now available on line. These developments include, our role in heading up a team to consider the use of mediation in construction projects , a review of the latest EU Procurement issues - both caselaw and new legislation, articles on drafting and interpretation of contracts and a look at the controversy caused by the European Court of Justice, in the world of International Arbitration in relation to its decision in the West Tankers' case. For full details, please click here.

Fenwick Elliott sponsor the Escort Cosworth driven by Mark Welch of Q8 Aviation who competes in the BTRDA Rally Championship. Mark and his co-driver recently secured their best ever win taking victory on the Trinity Motors Rally of the Midlands. Click here to see Mark in action.

Papers by Karen Gidwani on "Adjudication in Practice", by Ted Lowery headed "Do I have a contract" and Barry Hembling on "Recent Developments in Adjudication" given at the 15th Fenwick Elliott Construction Law Update Seminar are now available online. In addition, please click here to read the paper by Jeremy Glover outlining the latest way in which parties are challenging adjudicator’s decisions.