Trailers

Forthcoming Meetings

All members are welcome to attend the following technical meetings, which start at 6 for 6.30pm unless otherwise stated. They are organised for you by your local branch. Attendance is free to all grades of members and the atmosphere is informal. We especially welcome our newer members, who can meet and share experiences with other members of all grades.

Existing and aspiring Chartered Arbitrators and members of Panels are reminded that they are required to gain at least 60 CPD points in each three-year period. Our technical meetings each count as 1.5 CPD points. So whether you are looking to add to your CPD, are interested in the topics, or just want to do some networking, why not come along?

Tea and coffee will be available before each talk and dinner will be available at a cost of £15.00 per person, payable on the night, for those wishing to stay afterwards. For further information on any of the events below, please contact the South East Branch Chairman, Helena Brown (helena.brown@mcms.co.uk).

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL TECHNICAL MEETINGS ARE ACCREDITED BY THE LAW SOCIETY AS 1.5 CPD HOURS

Thursday 29th January 2009 7.00PM - Bridge House Hotel, Reigate
Joint CIArb & CIOB Meeting: Adjudication what's left to fight about after 10 years?
Dominic Helps and John Shiels

Dominic Helps has been a Partner at Shadbolt & Co LLP since 1996, having become Articled and qualified with Linklaters & Paines in 1983. He specialises in the handling of all sorts of building and civil engineering disputes, both domestic and international. He has considerable experience of handling large complex international disputes in ICC and ad hoc arbitrations and has conducted numerous adjudications and has been involved in many of the reported adjudication enforcement decisions. He regularly contributes to the construction and legal press and he his a speaker on construction law. Joint editor of 'Construction Act Review' (CLJ). Accredited adjudicator (TeCSA) and trained mediator.

John Shiels is also a Partner at Shadbolt & Co and is a Chartered Surveyor. He has acted on a wide range of building, civil engineering and process engineering disputes. His clients include local authorities, developers, architects, engineers, main contractors and sub-contractors. He has acted on matters involving litigation, arbitration, adjudication and mediation. John retains an in depth knowledge of all the industry standard forms. He has also acted in international arbitrations on behalf of German and French contractors. John lectures widely and is a visiting lecturer at Kingston University. John also contributes to a number of industry publications including Construction Law, where he writes a regular column on ADR and the Construction News web-site where he writes a bi-monthly blog on construction law issues.

Together the dynamic duo will debate: "

• The effect of Carillion v Devonport Naval Dockyard " -
• Arguments over what constitues a crystalised dispute: have they been put to rest? " -
• Bias and breaches of natural justice, the last refuges for "disruptive elements"? " -
• Does the size of the dispute matter after CIB v Birse? " -
• Can the adjudicator be sued?

Tuesday 10th February 2009 at 6.30pm - Bridge House Hotel, Reigate
Enough about the Law - What about the FACTS? : John L Riches FRICS FCIOB FCIArb MAE

Historically, training for lawyers has centred on the law and legal premise and not on fact or the analysis of fact. With the advent of improved communications and the internet, we now have more free sources of law available than ever before. We are in legal overload; there seems to be a great urge to report cases, however insignificant, to satisfy the consumption for law. The whole system of reporting is now based on quantity rather than quality. But without FACT, the law is actually useless. It is impotent! If you have no established fact then you have nothing to apply the law to. In the submissions before them, tribunals are bombarded with law, with little or nothing on the facts. This talk visits a concentration on fact rather than law, and looks at why tribunals should always determine the FACTS before the law!

John L Riches is Managing Director of Henry Cooper Consultants Limited. He is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and Chartered Builder with more than 30 years experience in the construction industry. He acts as Arbitrator both in the UK and overseas, and has lectured extensively on dispute resolution as far afield as Malaysia and Barbados. He has carried out in the region of 200 Adjudications. He has acted as tutor and assessor for the RICS, TeCSA and CIOB adjudication panels, and is qualified as a tutor for CIArb Adjudication courses. He has also acted as assessor for the RICS Arbitration Panel. He is co-author with Chris Dancaster of the highly regarded and widely used text book Construction Adjudication - A Practical Guide.

Tuesday 10th March 2009 at 6.15pm - Bridge House Hotel, Reigate
CIArb South East Branch Annual General Meeting, followed by a talk by Rowan Planterose

The CIArb South East Branch Annual General Meeting will take place at 6.15pm on Tuesday 10th March 2009, and we are delighted that the AGM will be followed at 6.30pm by a talk by Rowan Planterose (topic to be confirmed). Rowan is Managing Partner at Davies Arnold Cooper, and is one of the most learned and respected authors and speakers on Arbitration. He is a solicitor and formerly a practising barrister. Rowan is a Chartered Arbitrator, co-author of a book on the 1996 Arbitration Act, and author of the adjudication section of Bernstein's Handbook of Dispute Resolution. The majority of Rowan's work is for substantial contractors or their professional advisers. Rowan specialises in complex construction and engineering disputes, including associated professional negligence actions, whether in litigation (Technology and Construction Court), arbitration or adjudication. His work within the engineering field includes structural, civil (including road building and tunnelling), mechanical and electrical, power generation, hazardous waste disposal, oil and chemicals, food processing, railways, telecommunications, off-shore and on-shore drilling.

Tuesday 21st April 2009 at 6.30pm Ramada Tunbridge Wells, 8 Tonbridge Road, Pembury, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 4QL

GAFTA - what it does, including its arbitration service

Barry Duggan The Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA) has an internationally respected arbitration service. GAFTA's arbitration service provides parties who use GAFTA's standard forms of contract with a system to resolve trade disputes in a fast and efficient manner. Barry Duggan first entered the physical commodity business in the 1950s after completing his National Service. Since that time he has acquired a wide working knowledge of the international commodity business specialising in oils, seeds, grain and feeds and allied commodities. He was a qualified arbitrator with GAFTA for 35 years until his recent retirement. He has been involved in numerous GAFTA arbitrations both at first tier and at appeal level. He served on the contracts committee of that Association for 31 years and also served terms as a member of the arbitration committee.

Tuesday 12th May 2009 at 6.30pm - Bridge House Hotel, Reigate
A reminiscence: 45 years on the sea of arbitration
Bruce Harris Maritime Arbitrator

Bruce Harris practices as a full-time commercial arbitrator (having started part-time in 1975) dealing with all kinds of commercial and trading disputes, particularly maritime matters, predominantly in London arbitrations but also elsewhere, both as member of tribunal and as sole arbitrator (including umpire). Involved in over 8,000 references to date and signatory to over 2,000 awards. Bruce also acts as a Mediator (having successfully completed LMAA mediation course).

Bruce is joint author of The Arbitration Act 1996 - A Commentary (Blackwell Science) (Now in 3rd edition); author of chapter on maritime arbitration in the Handbook of Arbitration Practice (4th edition: Eds. Tackaberry, Marriott and Wood); Editor and main author of Thos. R. Miller & Sons` ``Legal Decisions`` 1977-80; Consultant Editor for London Maritime Arbitration (2nd edition: Clare Ambrose and Karen Maxwell) and has published numerous articles in a number of journals.

Come along and join him for a leisurely cruise down memory lane.

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