Damon is initially qualified as a Chartered Civil and Structural Engineer. Since he subsequently also qualified as a solicitor, Damon has undertaken a wide range of both contentious and non-contentious construction related legal work.

On the contentious side, he has handled a number of litigation and arbitration proceedings over the years. He is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and acts as an arbitrator. His non-contentious experience includes preparing, negotiating and advising on construction, consultancy and other related contracts and tender documents for employers, contractors, subcontractors and consultants in respect of a number of building and civil projects using different forms of contract including the HKIA form, FIDIC, NEC3, IChemE, Australian Standard Form, Hong Kong Government forms and standard forms of major statutory bodies in Hong Kong.

Hogan Lovells is a co-author of The Annotated Ordinances of Hong Kong by LexisNexis on the new Arbitration Ordinance to be published in due course.

The New Arbitration Ordinance (the “Ordinance”) becomes effective on 1 June of this year. It is of particular interest to the construction industry which is one of the most frequent users of arbitration and arbitration clauses have become part of standard forms in the industry.

The Ordinance has introduced a number of significant features which industry users should know. In particular, it unifies the pre-existing international and domestic regimes. The law adopted is essentially the UNCITRAL Model Law, with a number of additional provisions which are only applicable if agreed by the parties or if the relevant arbitration provision relates to a domestic dispute.

It would be both useful and interesting to hear from one of the leading construction lawyers in Hong Kong the important features of the Ordinance, with a particular focus on the construction industry.