People

Varied perspectives help us to build constructive working relationships.

People
Portrait of Chris Bates

Profile

Chris is a partner in the construction and infrastructure team in the London office, specialising in construction and related insurance disputes. He focuses on handling high value and technically complex disputes, such as those in relation to defects, professional negligence, payment claims, change, and delay and prolongation, under bespoke and standard form construction contracts, including JCT and NEC.

He has particular experience in acting for construction professionals and their insurers, as well as in handling disputes arising from large-scale civil infrastructure schemes across all major sectors and commercial building projects. He regularly advises on construction insurance coverage matters and acts for insurers in coverage investigations and disputes.

Chris also specialises in building safety issues, acting for developers, owners, contractors, professionals and insurers on a range of cladding and other fire safety related disputes. He was consulted by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities over aspects of the Building Safety Bill during its passage through Parliament.

He is experienced in all forms of dispute resolution used in the construction industry, including multi-party TCC litigation, arbitration and adjudication. He also regularly advises clients in the background on live projects to mitigate or avoid escalation into formal disputes.

Recent work highlights

  • Successfully securing the release of a global engineering consultancy client from high value multi-party TCC litigation concerning alleged defects at a PFI hospital.
  • Acting for a main contractor client in an adjudication brought by a sub-contractor over the true value of the sub-contract account on a re-development project in Scotland.
  • Providing an international client with ongoing advice in connection with a major national tunnelling project.
  • Advising an insurer client on coverage issues under a design and build professional indemnity policy in respect of a range of cladding and other defects claims.

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC311575 and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 419867.

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP