• I specialise in construction and engineering, advising a wide range of clients within the construction sectors, including contractors, specialist subcontractors, engineers and architects, local authorities and developers.

    I work in a wide range of sectors, including infrastructure, housing, student accommodation and office developments, waste and energy and cover all the major forms of contract, particularly NEC, JCT, IChemE and FIDIC, as well as bespoke contracts.

    I do a variety of work – from drafting and negotiating contracts, to the project management of legal issues throughout the life of the contract to resolving disputes, usually through settlement, mediation, adjudication or court/arbitration proceedings.

    I also give programmes of seminars on topical issues to a variety of trade and professional organisations, including CECA North East and CECA Yorkshire and the Humber, CIOB, and CIHT.

  • I have drafted/negotiated contracts for;

    • Waste to energy plants
    • Factory fit outs
    • Groundworks (and piling)
    • Student and office accommodation
    • Rail infrastructure works

    I have assisted with project managing the legal aspects of a project for;

    • Utility Framework Agreements
    • District heating contract
    • Hospital contract
    • Port and harbour works
    • Defects claims

    I have resolved disputes through mediation/settlement discussions relating to the following;

    • Roof and piling defects
    • Final account claims
    • Claims where the contract has been wrongfully terminated
    • EU procurement disputes

    I have resolved disputes through adjudication/arbitration/court proceedings relating to the following;

    • Oil and gas disputes
    • Final and interim accounts for hotels, waste to energy plants, road and infrastructure works, utility framework agreements , to name a few
    • Structural defects
    • Procedural adjudications – smash and grab and also under the NEC ‘deeming ‘ provisions relating to compensation events
    • Claims relating to port and harbour works and defects

    I recently assisted a developer in relation to a contractor that went into liquidation part way through the build. This involved preparing a new contract for the replacement contractor, dealing with the novation/reappointment of subcontractors, calling on the performance bond and the parent company guarantees, as well as liaising with the funder and prospective tenant. This was not a situation the client has previously encountered and required a substantial effort, negotiation and tenacity on all parts, to get the project back on track and avoid it going into a loss making situation.

Sarah Wilson and her team were fantastic. I have worked with Sarah for over ten years. She is polite, professional and a great communicator.

The Legal 500, 2023

Sarah's areas of expertise

Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set optional analytics cookies to help us improve it. We won't set optional cookies unless you enable them. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences. For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookies page.

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Analytics cookies

We'd like to set Google Analytics cookies to help us to improve our website by collection and reporting information on how you use it. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone.
For more information on how these cookies work, please see our Cookies page.