Constructive Law

Stuart Murphy. Law firm Carson McDowell has experts working across 32 specialist areas of expertise. Partners in the Construction and Property Litigation, Stuart Murphy and John Dugdale, discuss the building landscape in NI, now and in the future.

Carson McDowell announced no less than 18 promotions, including 10 senior associates and eight associates across its team in late 2020. It’s an investment which is testament to the fact that the firm is thriving, despite the complicated landscape it is working in and the confidence the firm has in business recovery.

The company employs 112 lawyers and has a total headcount of over 180 across its offices in Belfast and Dublin.

“The firm has changed and grown over the last few years,” Stuart says. “There has been a significant expansion in terms of numbers of staff but the same commitment to providing a quality service to clients remains. We do more, better, always trying to do the best job with skilled lawyers who are specialists in their areas of practice.”

Stuart and John are both partners in the construction and property litigation team, which works with parties involved in construction and engineering projects. This includes developers, contractors, funders and professional consultants.

Advice ranges from putting in place contracts

“At the beginning of the pandemic there was a temporary reaction when construction work came to a halt and people didn’t know what was ahead but by about April 2020 sites started to get back up and running and ever since that has been the case.”

at the outset of a project, to assisting clients in the resolution of disputes.

On the property litigation side the team advises clients on issues such as nuisance, breach of quiet enjoyment and derogation from grants arising out of active and proposed property developments.

That area of the business is growing, as too is the team, which now has a headcount of four, including Gavin Kerr, an associate who has a “strong reputation for drafting and contract negotiation”. Rebecca Ferguson recently joined the team as assistant solicitor.

John Dugdale.

“We have no complaints in terms of work,” John says of the business’s current activity. “And we’re seeing growth in the team so that shows that there is a fair amount of work going on even during the pandemic.”

John is a returning Carson McDowell alumnus who re-joined the business in June 2020.

“When I was on the outside looking in, the quality of the work that Carson McDowell was doing was impressive,” he says.

Indeed high profile cases consume the majority of the firm’s work, with recent milestone projects for the construction department including the £70m Merchant Square development and the £250m City Quays development.

Stuart, who joined Carson McDowell in 2007, becoming a partner in 2010 and who heads up the team, adds: “At the beginning of the pandemic there was a temporary reaction when construction work came to a halt and people didn’t know what was ahead but by about April 2020 sites started to get back up and running and ever since that has been the case.”

John says that even in the hotel industry, one of the worst affected sectors during the pandemic, developments are on-going.

“That’s probably not the norm but there were good office and hotel projects in the pipeline and we are starting to see them moving again.”

Even with the work-from-home shift over lockdown casting some doubt over the future viability of those larger office spaces, Stuart says there will still be activity within that area of construction. And demand.

He continues: “Here in Belfast we have such a shortage of good office space and inevitably there is going to be demand for that.”

It’s a positive affirmation for the NI skyline.

The partners estimate that much of its immediate future activity will also come from the public sector, with housing an area of huge growth potential.

Stuart adds: Over the second half of 2020, the public sector work, particularly in education, was high in terms of project numbers, but as we are still in need of social and private housing there will inevitably be construction growth on that front.

“On the commercial side of things, away from offices, activity in warehouses and logistic centres is high given how much online retail delivery has grown.”

Amazon is one such firm that has expanded its warehouse space in recent months here with a new 8,500 square metre delivery station in Channel Commercial Park at Titanic Quarter. That site replaces its temporary facility, also located in the same vicinity.

On a further positive note, John anticipates opportunities arising from Brexit. He says: “Northern Ireland is in a fairly unique position in relation to access to both the EU and GB, and that makes the region a very interesting proposition for inward investment and distribution centres. I’ve certainly seen enthusiasm about investment here because of that unique position.”

Looking at the city centre, which has suffered a number of losses lately, including the demise of Arcadia which has left holes in Victoria Square and CastleCourt, the closure of Debenhams, also in CastleCourt and the large Argos unit at Rosses Court, John and Stuart are positive a new style city centre will emerge.

“Inevitably there will be some change,” John says. “The city centre was undergoing change anyway and I see the Ulster University campus bringing life to different areas of the city. It will be the reimagining of the city, making it more residential and leisure focussed. Undoubtedly that residential population will lead to different uses of units there. We’re going to need a lot of imaginative developers.”

He adds that “an upgrade in transport infrastructure” will be needed to realise that shift.

Looking closer to home and the activity in house at Carson McDowell’s construction and property litigation team, Stuart continues: “We’re quite fortunate. We deal with the front end of new projects and that tends to be busier when the economy is good. In a downturn, we tend to see an increase in the number of disputes.

“We expect, coming out of the pandemic, that there will be more disputes between parties including people trying to get paid for work or disputes about what is due on projects. I expect there will be a number of claims coming out of delays and disruptions and it will be about who’s responsible.”

Stuart concludes: “Very much part of the ethos of the firm is to make sure that we have specialists in all of the areas that clients need legal advice on and that’s how I see us going forward, identifying the areas of legal advice that our clients require and continuing to grow, and bringing more people in so we can deal with that.”

“On the construction side specifically there is potential to see more developments around NI. We will also continue to work with our NI clients who do work in GB, travelling with them, virtually if not in person.”

John adds: “In terms of the team that’s there right now in construction, we have the most experienced construction team in Northern Ireland. We’re in a good place to build.”