Ted Lowery Partner

Ted specialises in dispute resolution at all levels in the construction and energy sectors and has considerable experience of representing clients in arbitration, both domestic and international, particularly under the ICC Rules. He has also been extensively involved in litigation, conducting cases in the County and High Court, in the Court of Appeal and in the Technology and Construction Court. Since 1999 he has been involved in over 50 adjudications and he has participated in enforcement and Part 8 applications. On the ADR side he has represented clients in expert procedures and mediations.

Ted has been closely involved in a number of PFI projects including in relation to disputes concerning the interpretation of the PayMech in connection with defects, service failures and Unavailability. He has completed several PFI adjudications including tripartite and name–borrowing proceedings and has advised upon the credit agreement implications in consequence of such proceedings

Ted also specialises in the non-contentious aspects of construction and energy projects.  He has particular experience of providing advice and drafting input into design and build contracts, infrastructure arrangements, gas sales agreements, shareholders’ agreement, energy project contracts and licenses for proprietary processes.

Since 2009 Ted has worked closely with a number of national energy companies in the Caspian Sea region and has provided advice in relation to a diverse range of legal issues connected with the hydrocarbon industry, including gas field development and gas pricing disputes.

• advising a PFI project company in relation to threats by an NHS hospital Trust to commence adjudication and/or levy substantial retrospective deductions in respect of alleged fire-stopping defects and connected service failures;

• acting on behalf of the state gas concern of a Caspian region country in connection with a proposed transnational gas pipeline project:  negotiating the gas sales agreements, advising in relation to the corporate structure of the proposed pipeline company and the investment arrangements and working with international funding bodies;

• acting for the PFI concession company in relation to a long-running dispute concerning defects in the asphalt pavement sections of a motorway in the north of England. The dispute is worth over £20m and was recently settled with the benefit of input from independent experts;

• acting on behalf of a national gas company in relation to disputes with a drilling and sub-surface works contractor.  In addition to contractual advice this has involved liaising with  local lawyers and the state legal administration and commissioning technical and financial  audits of the contractor’s works;

• representing a state road authority in two ICC arbitrations against main contractors concerning disputed VAT liability under two highway expansion and improvement contracts in East Africa;

• advising and subsequently representing in mediation and adjudication a PFI project company in relation to the applicability of retrospective deductions under the Project Agreement Paymech;

• acting on behalf of a state gas concern in negotiations with licensors over the terms of various licenses for the use of proprietary technologies in the chemical industry including a polyethylene and polypropylene plant, a gas to gasoline facility and a de-sulphurisation process;

• acting for a Japanese chemical company in an ICC Rules arbitration concerning the construction of a co-polymer production facility.  The arbitration process took some 4 years to complete and disposed of claims exceeding £30m in aggregate;

• acting for a local authority in an adjudication arising out of a framework agreement with a contractor for public sector housing refurbishment works to meet the government’s Decent Homes standard.  By consent, the adjudication was extended to allow the adjudicator to consider each disputed valuation item in the contractor’s claims for over £1.4m;

• advising and subsequently representing in adjudication a PFI project company in relation to a major dispute over the cause and extent of corrosion in the heating system pipework within a new hospital.

Between 2009 and 2014 Ted was joint editor of the Construction Industry Law Letter. Between 2014 and 2016 he acted as general editor of Fenwick Elliott’s bi-monthly Case in Focus feature for Building magazine’s website. Since summer 2016 he has produced the monthly Case in Focus reports that appear both on the website and in the hard copy of Building magazine.

Ted has lectured at seminars organised by Fenwick Elliott and by the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers. He has prepared and participated in in-house training seminars provided to clients. He has also appeared in the Television Education Network series of programmes and more recently in webinars organised by LexisNexis, speaking on construction-related topics.

• member of the Technology and Construction Solicitors’ Association;
• member of the Society of Construction Law.