Lawyer Monthly - June 2022

ow has the construction expert market changed since you first started practising? The construction expert market has grown significantly since I first started practising as a consultant in the UK in 2006. At that time, the pool of construction experts that I was aware of was relatively small. Even when I moved to Australia in 2011 to a large international consultancy there was not much in the way of competition. During my seven years there, I saw significant growth in the expert market. Today, you will find just about every major construction consultancy, as well as some of the large financial services organisations, offering expert services in Australia. One benefit of the increased competition is a better understanding of what a good expert looks like and an improvement in the range of expert services available. The obvious downside to this is a corresponding increase in so-called experts offering services at low rates to appeal to potential clients. . The one thing that has not changed significantly is diversity amongst construction expert witnesses (gender, age, and ethnicity). While I value and appreciate the business acumen of my male colleagues, it would be a welcome change to see more women experts. When I first started I knew of very few female experts and even less experts from different ethnic backgrounds. There has been slight growth over the years but, disappointingly, very little. Asia, like the UK, has a mature expert market and during my time here since Construction Experts andDispute Resolution Post COVID This month we hear from Anne Connolly, senior managing director at Ankura, who draws upon two and a half decades of practice to illustrate how the construction expert industry continues to develop. From the enduring causes of disputes in the construction sector to the knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the greater technological uptake it prompted, she explores the new state of dispute resolution in global construction. H EXPERT INSIGHT

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