There are three main areas of construction law: disputes, projects and non-contentious.

Non-contentious

Non-contentious work mainly involves drafting the suite of documents necessary for a construction project, including the building or engineering contracts themselves and appointments for the consultants involved in the project.

Disputes

On the disputes side, construction has its own specialist and fast-moving dispute-resolution procedure – adjudication under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, which can take as little as 28 days.

Construction disputes often tend to involve complicated factual and expert evidence and you can easily become involved in a long, multi-party arbitration or court case. There is scope for international work, with British construction lawyers often becoming involved in disputes around the globe.

Projects

Project work covers developments financed under the Private Finance Initiative or other forms of Public Private Partnerships. These tend to be high value and complicated deals which draw together a mix of construction, commercial, real estate and finance expertise.

You can expect your fair share of late nights and pressure as the deal reaches the all-important financial close. In return, you get to contribute to the rebuilding of significant public buildings such as schools, hospitals and key-worker housing.

What you can expect

Construction law gives you the opportunity to get to grips with some of the lesser-known conundrums you studied in contract and tort, as well as involvement in projects and disputes from a variety of perspectives.

It is essential that you develop commercial awareness and, when the need arises, demonstrate the ability to work particularly quickly. You can expect to be faced with a steady flow of work.

Skills for construction lawyers

You will need:

• good written and oral expression
• a sense of commercial awareness
• a fun outlook – it always helps.