How I Started Practising Construction Law
Quiz night in a local pub
For the most part of 2019, a group of friends and I met in a local pub in Kampala every Monday night for a quiz session. These sessions felt like an extension of the weekend and a precursor to the formal work week, which (for us) essentially began on Tuesday morning and ended on Friday at noon.
Then, I worked with a government parastatal, overseeing an infrastructure portfolio co-financed by the World Bank, the German Development Agency, and partly by the Government of Uganda. After thinking long and hard about the hills, valleys and plateaus associated with my line of work and digesting the fact that no one remains in public office for eternity, I paused a question to Allan, my friend, who was enjoying fish fingers off a plate of food that our team had just won in the famous quiz round—movies and performing arts.
Cyrus: “How shall we keep ourselves professionally relevant in our line of work when we are past 60 and must exit public office?”
“How shall we keep ourselves professionally relevant in our line of work when we are past 60 and must exit public office?”
Allan: “What are you processing?” Allan asked.
Cyrus: “Let’s study construction law and dispute resolution. We will position ourselves to support infrastructure projects in this niche field. We are civil engineers who are fortunate to know public infrastructure works with a technical depth. With the practical experience we have gained or will have acquired by 60 years of age or earlier, we shall command premium fees for rendering construction law services locally and abroad.”
Allan: “That sounds interesting. Have you identified where and how much it will cost us?”
Cyrus: “A Master of Science in Construction Law and Dispute Resolution will cost each of us a total of £8,000 at Leeds Beckett University (LBU) in the United Kingdom. The mode of study is online and LBU offers a two-year and four-year route. Let’s apply and get it done in two years.”
There and then, Allan and I decided to return to school and start what turned out to be a brutal but rewarding journey.
Admission to Leeds Beckett University (LBU)
To support my LBU application, I appended recommendations from two seasoned construction adjudicators: Peter William Sanders (based in Manchester) and Romanio Allione (based in Italy).
In mid-January 2020, while attending a short utility training with colleagues in Seoul, I received an email from the LBU admissions office confirming the acceptance of my application. I was delighted.
Three months before the first semester commenced, my senior colleagues in the parastatal had moved me to a different and rather undesired role with a remote linkage to infrastructure development. This move lit a fire in me that fuelled my ambition to complete the course and set myself on a different career path.
Three months before the first semester commenced, my senior colleagues in the parastatal had moved me to a different and rather undesired role with a remote linkage to infrastructure development. This move lit a fire in me that fuelled my ambition to complete the course and set myself on a different career path.
Allan and I each paid half the course fees, and by late September 2020, we had commenced the first semester. I am certain that everyone reading this article needs no reminder that 2020 was the first COVID-19 year, and we (students and lecturers) were all trying to understand and appreciate the “new normal” circumstances.
Civil engineers adjusting to law
Via the two-year route, the first semester began with two modules: The Law of Obligations and Adjudication Law and Practice. My high school adequately prepared me for the content in my undergraduate civil engineering course, but nothing prepares a civil engineer for law school, nothing at all. Even though it is often said that engineers quickly cope with pretty much anything new to them, I struggled. Allan and I were attempting to ascend a slippery slope—perhaps to each light our own “Olympic torches.”
My high school adequately prepared me for the content in my undergraduate civil engineering course, but nothing prepares a civil engineer for law school—nothing at all. Even though it is often said that engineers quickly cope with pretty much anything new to them, I struggled.
I was overwhelmed by some of the legal jargon and doctrines – ratio decidendi, obiter dictum, contra proferentum, de minimus, ad idem, non est factum, prima facie, audi alteram partem, nemo iudex in causa, quantum meruit, parol evidence, promissory estoppel, etc.
It was not only just how foreign the jargon and doctrines were but also the journey to understanding and applying them in context when reading legal submissions from disputing parties’ counsel or court judgements. Fortunately, by the time the first semester exams were due, we had got the hang of it – or so we thought.
Some of the case law in the first two modules dates back to the medieval ages, but it was and still is surprising how “medieval-type” disputes still manifest today and how “medieval law” still applies—albeit with some organic growth due to advancements in the human way of life. This is where the law gets interesting.
Next up was Construction Law Principles and International Arbitration (my preferred elective). The sheer volume of the course material was much more than I had to deal with when I was studying fluid mechanics, the strength of civil engineering materials, traffic and transportation, soil mechanics, surveying, etc, for my undergraduate civil engineering degree. By the end of the second semester, I got much better, as I had understood how to dig myself out of the first-semester hole and answer legal questions like our tutors expected us to do. I am tempted to narrate a parallel story about how I grasped the OSCOLA case law referencing system and found a way to quickly extract the ratio decidendi and obiter dictum (there we go again) from judgments to support the arguments in my assignments, but I will leave that for later.
The sheer volume of the course material was much more than I had to deal with when I was studying fluid mechanics, the strength of civil engineering materials, traffic and transportation, soil mechanics, surveying, etc, for my undergraduate civil engineering degree.
By the third semester, I was dealing with Commercial Medication and Adjudication Decision Writing. I was in cruise mode now. However, because Allan and I had opted for the two-year route, we had a parallel module to deal with—Professional Research, which spanned the third and fourth semesters. At this point in the programme, I was aggregating the theory acquired in three semesters and distilling it to ably write an adjudicator’s decision and crystallise a professional research topic.
Oh! My goodness!
I will never forget the number of midnight candles and brain cells that I burnt in the third semester. That memory is right up there with the sleepless nights I spent preparing for my final high school exams in the late 90’s. I now appreciate why some geeks invented artificial intelligence (AI).
The third and final semesters of the course were successful. In the final semester, I studied the Law and Practice of Claim and International Arbitration Award Writing and assumed personal bragging rights when I scored a distinction in the Professional Research module, a summary of which the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators published on their website. Click here to access the detailed five-part write-up of my Professional Research.
The International Arbitration Award Writing exam was the last piece of the course puzzle, and I remember writing the exam when I was half asleep. At that point, it felt like I had run a marathon, and the Professional Research module had drained my brain. So, something had to give.
The International Arbitration Award Writing exam was the last piece of the puzzle, and I remember writing the exam when I was half asleep. At that point, it felt like I had run a marathon, and the Professional Research module had drained my brain. So, something had to give.
It is for this reason that I developed maximum respect for tribunals, a lot more than I had before I studied construction law. Sometimes, the sheer volume of what tribunals have to deal with (from oral and written submissions) and then collate to arrive at a decision, award, or judgement is overwhelming. You may only appreciate this fact when you read a well-written landmark Supreme Court judgement that sets a new precedent; inevitably, you will give respect where it is due.
Construction Law Practice
Approximately midway through the third semester at LBU (around 11 December 2021), I commenced full practice. With no salaried job anymore or client to my name, all I did was leverage the power of my networks to deliver opportunities in this new practice area. I had already set up a company in August 2015, but I began repositioning the professional arm of the company to support infrastructure players on three fronts, locally and abroad. The first front is handling construction claims; the second is providing dispute resolution services; and the third is providing tender, contractor, and execution support.
I attended my June 2022 graduation in absentia, and around the same time, the Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers appointed me to handle my first adjudication.
Three months before graduation, one of my Chinese clients engaged me to prepare a loss and expense claim against their Employer on a city drainage World Bank-funded FIDIC-based contract. I have handled 14 assignments since I went solo, but the cherry on top of the cake for me in 2022 was passing my peer review interview with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and assuming Fellow status. Obviously, a construction law novice cannot appreciate the significance of this achievement.
I face challenges.
The one that sticks out like a sore thumb is that even after working as a Civil Engineer for two decades and acquiring up to 14 years of built infrastructure-related experience, some individuals assert that I am inexperienced to take on a construction-law-related assignment which they themselves are uncertain about how to approach. I strongly believe that it is only those professionals who are qualified, competent and experienced in a specific practice area who can objectively pass judgment on a similarly skilled professional’s competence or the lack of it.
I strongly believe that it is only those professionals who are qualified, competent and experienced in a specific practice area who can objectively pass judgment on a similarly skilled professional’s competence or the lack of it
Secondly, it can get lonely because there isn’t a large pool of similarly qualified practitioners to consult. In fact, one of my acquaintances (now almost 85 years old) mentioned this to me in mid-2015 when I first considered the decision to switch my career. My LinkedIn presence provides a good platform to connect with similar practitioners and advance my competence in construction law.
I know that I have to cover extensive construction law practice mileage to convince some people that I can get a job done, and I have accepted that this process is similar to starting and completing a triathlon. Besides the obvious task of growing my construction law practice, I have some kind of bucket list with the things that I want to achieve before I turn 50 (one of which is so dear to me that it will perhaps never make it to an article), but I am on a relentless pursuit to discharging them. So, may karma be on my side.
Food for thought
- Familiarity breeds contempt. In this line of work, you are perhaps better off practising abroad.
- I recouped my LBU university fees in the first year of practice after concluding my first construction claims assignment.
- Switching career paths is a difficult decision, especially when you have already hit middle age. Think through it very carefully.
- Had it not been for the exposure that my project management role afforded me, I would not have known that such a career path was even possible. So, extract as much wisdom as possible from the opportunities that your work experience gives you.
- When it comes to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) assignments, getting the first appointment may take time or happen almost immediately after you have acquired the necessary ADR qualifications. Regardless of when it happens, give it your best. The same applies to handling matters of claim or providing tender, contract and execution support. One good deed can crystallise the next invaluable opportunity to grow your portfolio.
- I challenge any qualified lawyer out there to attempt to study a civil engineering degree and narrate their experience. I am certain it will be an interesting article, and I cannot wait to read such an article.
- Not everyone is only “getting high” in the local pub. Some good comes out of pub nights.
One good deed can crystallise the next invaluable opportunity to grow your portfolio.
To conclude, I want to re-state (in verbatim) a question that one of my good friends asked me when I published my first article for 2024. Click here to read that article.
“Cyrus, what motivates you to spend a fair amount of time and effort to publish such; to become more widely known or just to share knowledge?
Can you guess how I responded? Perhaps not.
Ciao!
