Nicholas Zeolla

Nicholas has experienced and assisted on a range of technically complex and high value construction and engineering disputes. Many of the matters in which he is instructed proceed by way of adjudication and he is familiar with all standard form construction contracts and often works with bespoke contracts. Recent experience includes:

Defects Claims

• Acting for a roofing contractor to set aside Default Judgment and draft a Defence and Counterclaim against a sub-contractor in respect of water ingress defects to a train station re-development in London.
• Drafting a Defence on behalf of a supplier in a case concerning allegations of defects to the wooden flooring at a property.
• Drafting Particulars of Claim in a complex fire-safety dispute concerning defective cladding at a building in the Paddington basin (during pupillage).
• Drafting particulars of claim in an MEP defects case concerning new-build flats in north London (during pupillage).
• Drafting a mediation position statement on behalf of the Claimant in a high value multi-party fire-safety defects claim concerning a high-rise student accommodation building in London (during pupillage).
• Drafting a Defence, Scott Schedule and Request for Further Information in a defects claim concerning the timber frame elements of a new boarding house (during pupillage).
• Advising a homeowner on the prospects and quantum of their claim against their builders for a house renovation project in London.
• Advising architects on their contractual and limitation position in relation to a claim for fire safety defects (during pupillage).
• Advising on the liability of a number of Defendants for timber defects to a landmark high-rise development in London (during pupillage).
• Advising on liability, limitation and quantum in relation to a claim being brought against a timber frame supplier by a main contractor (during pupillage).

Payment Disputes and Adjudication

• Acting for an oil refinery in parallel adjudications relating to the valuation of a multi-million pound refractory contract and responding to a ‘smash and grab’ adjudication (with Mathias Cheung).
• Acting for a contractor to resist the enforcement of a £1,000,000+ adjudication award in the TCC on jurisdictional grounds.
• Drafting an advice for a contractor on its entitlement to different heads of loss and expense in relation to projects totaling £140 million which have been subject to delays and increased expenditure due to Brexit, Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine.
• Drafting a Notice of Adjudication and Referral Notice for a £12.5 million ‘smash and grab’ adjudication (during pupillage).
• Advising a Contractor on their ability to challenge the enforcement of an adjudication award on both jurisdictional and natural justice grounds (during pupillage).
• Drafting an advice on merits, Defence, Counterclaim and Additional Claim following a series of adjudications in a civils and utilities payment dispute (during pupillage).
• Advising on the merits of payment claims made by a contractor under a heavily amended JCT contract in respect of the development of two penthouse apartments in Knightsbridge (during pupillage).
• Advising on an employer’s entitlement to liquidated damages for delay and disruption in a case concerning sectional completion and the development of multiple sites into one super-prime apartment building in Westminster (during pupillage).
• Advising a service provider in a long-term co-operative contract on their position on termination (during pupillage).

Contribution and Defective Premises Act Claims

• Advising on the appropriate claimant for a claim under the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 (during pupillage).
• Advising structural engineers on the impact of a novation on DPA and contribution claims being brought against them by the developers of a high-rise apartment building (during pupillage).

Infrastructure

• Advising an unexploded ordnance contractor on their contractual claims against UAE and Swiss parties for mine clearing works in relation to the construction of a waste to energy plant in the UAE.
• Advising on the appropriate method for claiming costs under a complex PFI hospital contract (during pupillage).
• Preparing research notes and assisting with the drafting of the List of Issues in a case concerning a dispute over the profit-sharing provisions of a complex contract for a waste to energy plant (during pupillage).

Before pupillage Nicholas trained in international arbitration and private international law as a Michael Mustill scholar at the Hague Academy of International Law. During law school Nicholas’ team Successfully competing in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition: winning the White & Case Pre-Moot in Frankfurt and receiving an Honourable Mention in Vienna.

Recent experience includes:

• Drafting statements of case and Stern Schedules in a DIAC arbitration proceeding for more than 1 billion AED concerning the construction of a landmark hotel in Dubai (during pupillage).
• A several hundred-million-dollar ICC arbitration proceeding concerning the termination of a hydropower project in the Caucasus (during pupillage).
• An ICC arbitration arising under a contract for the supply of feed water heaters by an engineering company to a power plant project in Saudi Arabia (during pupillage).

Nicholas has experienced and assisted on both domestic and international disputes concerning energy and natural resources. Recent experience includes:

• Acting for an oil refinery in an adjudication relating to the valuation of a multi-million pound refractory contract (with Mathias Cheung).
• Drafting Particulars of Claim in relation to property damage to a steel production plant (during pupillage).
• Drafting an advice on delay and disruption claims in relation to a Swedish power plant project (during pupillage).
• Advising on the limitation position of claims in relation to the supply of defective feed water heaters for a power plant in Saudi Arabia (during pupillage).

Nicholas has experienced and assisted on both domestic and international commercial litigation matters involving civil fraud and real estate disputes. Recent experience includes:

• Acting for a public transport body in the United Kingdom to successfully strike out a £350,000+ civil fraud claim brought against it.
• Drafting a skeleton argument for an application to strike out allegations of civil fraud in a Dubai real estate case in the Abu Dhabi Global Markets Courts (during pupillage).
• Preparing research notes for a High Court trial concerning the purchase and sale of a landmark London property (during pupillage).
• Drafting a Letter of Claim alleging claims of misrepresentation and unjust enrichment against a multi-national private household staff agency.

Nicholas’ experience in the information technology sector includes advising a software distributor in Iraq on its claim for wrongful termination against a multinational software company (during pupillage).

Nicholas accepts equality and discrimination law instructions relating to commercial service providers and public bodies. Recent experience includes:

• Acting on a pro bono basis for a disabled claimant in his claims under the Equality Act 2010 against a multi-national retailer.
• Acting for a multi-national technology company in the defence of claims made against it under the Equality Act 2010.
• Acting for a public transport body in the United Kingdom in the defence of claims made against it under the Equality Act 2010.

City Law School, Bar Vocational Studies (2022 – 2023)
Prince of Wales Scholarship (Gray’s Inn)
Residential Scholarship (Gray’s Inn)
Winner, White & Case Vis Pre-Moot, Frankfurt
Honourable Mention for Respondent’s Memorandum, Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition, Vienna

The Hague Academy of International Law, Certificate in Private International Law (August 2022)
Michael Mustill Scholarship (Gray’s Inn)

City Law School, Graduate Diploma in Law (2021 – 2022)
City Law School Scholarship for Academic Excellence
Sheila Mars-Jones Scholarship (Gray’s Inn)

University College London, History (1^st Class Honours) (2018 – 2021)
Ranked first out of 232 students
Dean’s List for highest performing students in the Faculty of Social and Historical Studies
Burns Prize for highest awarded dissertation
Academic Scholarship for summer courses at Sapienza Università di Roma