Lauren Adams

Call 2013

“Lauren is the best junior I have ever worked with. She combines the insight of a wise head on young shoulders with incredible productivity.”

Construction, The Legal 500 2021

ladams@atkinchambers.com

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CV ( PDF )

Lauren’s domestic practice involves advising on private residential work and large commercial projects, including both adjudication and arbitration work. She has been heavily engaged in disputes relating to energy and renewable resources in recent years, acting as junior and sole counsel in cases arising out of the construction and performance of solar parks, waste-to-energy plants, and refurbishment of FPSOs. In this context, her notable experience in the law of guarantees and on-demand bonds, on which she has had several papers and the corresponding chapter of Hudson’s Building and Engineering Contracts published, is often engaged. She is often instructed to advise on calling or resisting calls on performance bonds and appears frequently in the TCC for emergency injunction applications arising therefrom.

Lauren’s experience of sizeable energy generation projects has furnished her with considerable knowledge of industry norms (both published and internal) applicable to construction activities performed in onshore and offshore environments.

Lauren also has experience in handling IT disputes, particularly relating to the use and performance of e-commerce platforms and communication systems.

Her international practice includes acting in arbitrations under the ICC, LCIA, DIAC and HKIAC rules, and she is experienced in dealing with many standard form construction contracts (JCT, FIDIC, NEC3, ICE and LOGIC CRINE).

Lauren was elected to the Society of Construction Law (SCL) Council in 2015, re-elected in 2018 and focuses her efforts on coordinating the SCL’s well-attended advocacy courses, sitting on the SCL Hudson Prize judging panel, and on building relationships with future construction professionals though the SCL’s university liaison and grants sub-committee.

CONSTRUCTION, ENGINEERING AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Advising on service of proceedings, enforceability of judgments between English, Singaporean and Qatari jurisdictions.
Advising sub-contractors on potential exposure around cladding in the wake of Grenfell.
Junior counsel on AMEY LG Limited v Cumbria County Council [2016] EWHC 2856 (TCC), a multi-million-pound final account dispute relating to a contract for highways maintenance.
Junior counsel on a dispute relating to construction of the Rolls Building.
Junior Counsel on a dispute over effective service of particulars of claim relating to a. high value dispute over the purchase of a defective shopping mall and car pack.
Advising on the proper construction of supply contract for turbines governed by English law in the context of Italian and Korean signatories.
Appearing on behalf of an architect at creditors’ meeting and successfully challenging the special purpose vehicle structure used by the company declaring voluntary insolvency to secure payment of his outstanding fees.
Advising on non-contentious construction matters for Soho House.
Appearing for a well-known developer seeking proper particularization of alleged defects in a high value development in central London.

ENERGY

Sole Counsel on a $80million+ DAB cross-border dispute relating to a Solar Park project dealing with the technical aspects of solar power energy generation, delay and complex questions of quantum.
Sole construction counsel on a £50million+ dispute relating to the under-performance of a biowaste plant in Ireland.
Junior counsel on a TCC dispute relating to a major waste-to-energy plant in Hull.
Advising on the proper interpretation of an exclusion clause in the context of the LOGIC CRINE standard terms for an offshore drilling rig project.
Acting on a liquidated damages claim under an EPC contract relating to a solar farm in England.
Acting in a complex cross-border oil and gas dispute relating to a FPSO, issues concerned technical issues of delay and disruption.

GENERAL COMMERCIAL

Acting in a professional negligence allegation in relation to an investment fund asset sale.
Appearing on behalf of a high net worth individual in a mediation relating to a dispute over the project manager’s invoices for renovation of his London property.
Appearing on behalf of a successful party in a summary judgment application relating to a loan agreement.
Advising on insolvency issues around the collapse of Carillion.

GUARANTEES AND BONDS

Acting for a subcontractor in relation to multiple on demand performance bonds and several warranty bonds concerning a power plant.
Successfully defending a client’s right to call on a performance bond in the context of a multi-million-pound waste to energy project despite an application made to restrain the call.
Appearing on behalf of a UK client seeking return of its performance bond at the end of a construction project.
Appearing on behalf of a client seeking the return of the bond sum and associated losses in an ICC arbitration.

IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Sole counsel on an on-going dispute relating to alleged breaches of contract for design, provision and hosting of a website.
Advising on the standard of care required from IT professionals on an on-going dispute.
Advising on the effect of an entire agreement clause on terms implied by the Sale of Goods Act and by fact/party intention in the context of ticket-reading machines.

ARBITRATION

Junior counsel in ICC arbitration relating to the delayed provision of piping spools and disrupted access to site in a diesel-substitute plant in the Americas.
Junior counsel in LCIA arbitration proceedings relating to a FPSO and delayed provision of isometric drawings.
Junior counsel in arbitration proceedings relating to a major joint venture tram project, involving complex issues of delay and quantum.
Junior counsel in arbitration proceedings relating to a PET plant and the delayed provision of interconnecting piping and isometrics.
Junior counsel in ICC arbitration proceedings relating to a major infrastructure project in Qatar.
Junior counsel in ICC arbitration proceedings relating to a multi-million dollar aviation project in the UAE.
Counsel in an application for security for costs under the ICE rules in the context of a claim arising out of an engineering contract for the construction of a marina.
Advising on whether the courts had concurrent jurisdiction to order security for costs, where the arbitral rules also provided for this power and the suitability of after the event insurance as security in arbitral proceedings.
Advising on the applicable law for “piercing the corporate veil” under the ICC rules arising out of a potential claim for a defective plant.
Advising on the availability of New York Convention Defences to enforcement of a New York Convention Award.
Advising on the scope of the parties’ confidentiality obligations in an arbitration under the DIAC rules.
Junior Counsel in a claim for loss and expense, and extensions of time arising out of changes to the works due to the contractor encountering unforeseen ground conditions during the construction of a marina.

ADJUDICATION

Acting for successful parties challenging demands made against various performance bonds, seeking return of the bond sums.
Acting for successful and unsuccessful parties at the enforcement stage.
Acting for parties in no “pay less” notice disputes and “true value” adjudications.
Acting for parties who have chosen to use the Scheme for Adjudication in the context of non-construction operations occurring outside the jurisdiction.
Advising as to the relative merits of challenging an adjudicator’s invoice.
Advising on the NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract (June 2005 Edition with later amendments) scope of dispute referred and the effect of a decision made “outwith jurisdiction” in a 1st adjudication on a 2nd adjudication in the context of defective pipework.
Advising on the relative merits of resisting enforcement or proceeding straight to arbitration to challenge an unfavourable adjudication award concerning the locus of design liability under a JCT standard form contract with a contractor designed portion.
Drafting a defence and counterclaim arising out of a claim for damages following the installation of tiles in a hotel.
Drafting particulars of claim for a claim arising out of the adjudication of a Target Cost Contract.
Advising on the existence of natural justice/jurisdictional objections to an adjudication award and the appropriateness of bringing a part 8 claim for declaration on the substantive matters.

LEGAL TEXTS

Hudson’s Building and Engineering Contracts (14th ed., 2020).

“The possible impact of Brexit on the UK’s oil and gas industry” – as at 13 December 2018, published in Atkin Chambers’ Brexit Bulletin

“On-demand bonds – a comparative study of English and Italian law on Fraudulent or Abusive Calling” – co-written with Giuseppe Broccoli, BDA Studio Legale – International Construction Law Review 2014

“New Clots in the Lifeblood of International Construction Projects: Enjoining employers’ calls on performance bonds”. Const. L.J. 2014, 30(7), 325-336 Sweet and Maxwell.

NOTABLE CASES

LSREF 3 Tiger Falkirk I S.à.r.l. and another v Paragon Building Consultancy Limited [2021] EWHC 2063 (TCC)

BRG and OE Waste v Gottex and others

AMEY LG Limited v Cumbria County Council [2016] EWHC 2856 (TCC)

QUALIFICATIONS AND AWARDS

2014: SCL Hudson 1st Prize for “New Clots in the Lifeblood of International Construction Projects: Enjoining Employers’ calls on performance bonds”

2013: Called to the Bar of England and Wales (Lincoln’s Inn)

2012 – 2013: Non-stipendiary law tutor at Oriel College and Regent’s Park College, Oxford University

City Law School: Bar Vocational Course (Very Competent)

2011 – 2012: BCL (Master’s in Law), St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, Distinction (Conflict of Laws; Restitution of Unjust Enrichment; European Business Regulation; Constitutional Principles of the European Union); Law Faculty prize for achieving the highest mark in Constitutional Principles of the EU on the BCL (2012)

2011: Lord Denning and Hardwicke Scholarships, Lincoln’s Inn

2008 – 2011: BA (Jurisprudence), Regent’s Park College, Oxford

2010: Member of the 2010 Oxford Jessup International Law Moot Team, ranked 6th in the world during the international rounds in Washington DC.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Lauren is a member of the SCL Council and participates in the following Sub-Committees: Advocacy Training Course, Court Advocacy Training Course, Astra SCL, Regions, SCL Hudson Prize Judges, University Liaison and Grants/Academic Conference.