Deborah specialises in transactional construction, with a particular focus on collaborative working in both the contract negotiation phase and setting up provisions for collaboration between the client and the construction team during the project itself using both bespoke contracts and common industry standard forms such as JCT, NEC, ICE, and FIDIC contracts.
She works in the private sector for clients, consultants and contractors and previously worked in-house at the Ministry of Defence Private Finance Unit.
Expertise
- Setting up building contracts, consultants’ appointments, novations, guarantees, bonds and collateral warranties for commercial developments, or reviewing these on behalf of the consultant/contractor and negotiating the documents with all parties
- Advising on and drafting provisions for collaborative contracting, including framework agreements, KPIs, target cost contracting and sharing of delays and cost overruns
- Advising on the public procurement rules, including challenges to non-compliant procurements
Experience
Commercial Development
- Drafting and negotiating a two-stage building contract for the conversion of the Grade II listed Welsh Chapel on Shaftesbury Avenue, London into a flexible performing arts space and restaurant to be operated by an arts charity. Also dealing with specialist theatre and lighting named subcontractor appointments and their subsequent novation to the contractor
- Creating and negotiating an integrated set of bespoke consultants’ appointments and building contract for the refurbishment of three buildings in Soho to create a residential and commercial space which mixes the restored old stone façade and modern bronze cladding
- Advising on the fallout from a main contractor insolvency and the appointment of a new contractor for a project in Soho, London, including dealing with time-critical advice relating to site control and heath and safety liabilities on one of the busiest weekends for the street in which the project is located
- Acting for a major UK supermarket in drafting and negotiating collaborative framework contracts for consultants and contractors for the redesign and fit-out all of their UK stores, including novel provisions for snagging works and defects rectification whilst the stores were trading
- Drafting and negotiating consultants’ appointments and the building contract for the redevelopment of a famous restaurant site in Soho, including dealing with the proposed tenant’s requirements and advising on the construction aspects of the agreement for lease
Public Sector
- Advising the successful bidder for a leisure and recreation services contract on a challenge from an unsuccessful tenderer under the UK public procurement regime. Also advising a public authority on public procurement compliance before and during the tender period for a highways contract
- Drafting numerous NEC-based contracts for the London 2012 Olympics, including the contract for the Delivery Partner (project manager) and the engineering contracts for structures, roads and bridges within the Olympic Park and the contract for site security during the construction phase, which all involved advice on the public procurement rules
- Providing a year-long training programme to members of the Olympic Delivery Authority, their consultants and the contractors on successful working using the ODA’s standard form NEC-based contract
- Seconded to the Ministry of Defence Private Finance Unit to create and gain Treasury approval of the MOD’s standard form PFI contract, which involved complexities not normally encountered in UK PFI, such as the need for provision of the services abroad, emergency service provision in times of war or civil unrest and the need to cater for assets which could be either land and buildings, marine or aviation
- Advising a UK university on its procurement strategy and frameworks for housing and teaching blocks and a sports institute
- Advised the developer and negotiated the construction documentation for a privately financed development of university student accommodation.
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Recognition
Deborah was a supplier of legal training and services for the Olympic Delivery Authority on the London 2012 Games
Whilst still a trainee, Deborah won the Society of Construction Law’s Hudson Prize for a paper dealing with the legal effects of partnering in construction contracts, and is the only trainee solicitor to have won this prize to date
Career
Deborah qualified as a solicitor in 2000. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2008, she worked at the following firms:
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- Osborne Clarke
- CMS Cameron McKenna
- Barlow Lyde & Gilbert