Construction

We have extensive experience in high-value, technically complex construction disputes. We are not just construction law specialists, we are construction specialists who understand the workings of the industry and are keen to grasp the technical details of the cases that we handle. We have acted for both owners/employers as well as contractors, subcontractors and other professionals in the industry. We are familiar with all of the major forms of construction contract and have conducted arbitrations under the rules of the Dutch Arbitration Board for Construction Disputes, the UNUM foundation and the Netherlands Arbitration Institute as well as many international arbitration rules including those of the ICC. Stefan Derksen, the firm’s managing partner, has been frequently ranked in Legal 500 for construction disputes and frequently sits as an arbitrator in construction disputes.

Recent cases

• We currently represent the owner of waste-to-energy plant in a EUR 60 M dispute against the EPC contractor responsible for the plant’s design and construction
• We recently secured a win in arbitration proceedings for a Monaco-based cruising company in a dispute with a shipyard arising from the construction of a large sailing passenger vessel. We successfully defended against a EUR 65 million claim (dismissed in full) and secured an award in which our client was awarded about EUR 15 million in damages. In follow-on enforcement actions, we have so far managed to secure payment of the majority of the awarded damages. We work with counsel in various jurisdictions to enforce the remaining balance
• We frequently represent ProRail, the state-owned company responsible for the national railway infrastructure in the Netherlands, in construction disputes arising in connection with the renovation and maintenance of the railway infrastructure and the design and build of train stations
• We are the trusted advisor of two large Dutch retailers (food and non-food) with respect to the contracting for the development of automated distribution centres. Our involvement ranges from the tender and contracting phase to the execution phase
• We have successfully defended the engineering company responsible for the design of two innovative wind turbine installation vessels in arbitration proceedings concerning alleged design flaws. In this case we managed to obtain evidence demonstrating that damage to the vessels that was allegedly the result of design flaws had in fact been caused by severe operational mistakes
• Our lawyers have been part of the counsel team that successfully represented a major oil and gas company in the largest construction arbitration in Malaysia ever  (dispute value exceeding EUR 1 billion) arising from the construction of a large offshore oil production platform