FIDIC Contracts Expert Programme Proforma

Enhance your FIDIC contracts expertise with the Proforma Expert Programme.

starts on

10 April 2025

Duration

12 Weeks, Online

10 hours per week

(structured lectures, interactive tutorials, and self-paced learning through reading, videos, and exercises)

course fee

USD 2,800

*interest free instalment plans available

Programme Director

Nicholas Gould
(Partner Fenwick Elliott and Visiting Professor King’s College London)

Get Your Brochure

FIDIC Contracts Expert Programme Proforma

Early applications are encouraged.
Seats fill up quickly!

(Last Date to Apply: 31 March 2025)

Course Overview

The FCX Programme provides comprehensive training on the FIDIC Suite of Contracts, with the aim for participants to master the intricacies of FIDIC contracts. Covering the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of employers, contractors, and engineers/employer’s representatives, as well as subcontracting, performance securities, insurances, payments, certificates, claims management, variations, extension of time, suspension, termination, completion, and dispute resolution within the context of FIDIC contracts.

Course Objectives

Why FIDIC?

Key Features

Weekly Course Topics

SnTopicWeekDate and Time
1FIDIC Suite of Contracts
  • Procurement pathways and contract selection
  • FIDIC and its structure, role and Task Groups
  • FIDIC suite of contracts
  • Risk allocation
  • Form selection
  • FIDIC structure, funding and ancillary agreements
Week 1TBA
2FIDIC legal framework
  • Contract formation under common and civil law
  • Contract interpretation and implied terms
  • Use of Contract Data and Particular Conditions
  • Indemnities and insurance
  • Defects liability and decennial liability
  • Limitation and exclusion clauses
Week 2TBA
3The Contract and project participants
  • Rights and obligations of the Employer and Contractor
  • The role, responsibility and liability of the Engineer and Employer’s Representative
  • Subcontracting
  • Bonds and guarantees
Week 3TBA
4Payments and Certificates
  • Payment, applications for payment, interim certificates
  • The final statement and financial management
  • Taking Over Certificate
  • Performance Certificate
Week 4TBA
5Variations
  • Instructions and variations
  • Method of measurement
  • Evaluating quantum
  • Implications on the project completion and related prolongations costs
Week5TBA
6Claims
  • Dispute avoidance
  • Notices, time bars and conditions precedent
  • Breach and proving loss
  • Evidence, progress reports and contemporary records
  • Engineer’s determinations
Week 6TBA
7Additional Payment Claims
  • Typical heads of claim, logic, calculation and substantiation
  • Valuing claims
  • Global claims
  • Prolongation
  • Disruption and productivity
  • Head office overheads and profit
Week 7TBA
8Extension of Time Claims
  • Possession, licences and completion
  • Extension of time clauses
  • Liquidated damages
  • The Prevention Principle
  • Sectional completion, and partial possession
  • Demonstrating delay and related evidence
  • Taking over
Week 8TBA
9Extension of Time Analysis
  • Proving delay, forensic delay analysis techniques, protocols and practice
  • Critical Path Method
  • Excusable and compensable delay
  • Concurrency, pacing, float, contingencies, and mitigation
  • Introduction to SCL Protocol and the AACE Forensic Schedule Analysis
Week 9TBA
10Suspension, Termination and Completion
  • Suspension and termination by Employer and Contractor
  • Force majeure and exceptional events
  • Resulting delay and financial consequence
  • Completion, tests on completion, taking over and tests after completion
  • Sectional completion and partial possession
  • Delay damages and penalties
Week 10TBA
11Claims procedures
  • The claims pathway in 1999 and 2017 compared
  • Claims and disputes (as defined or otherwise)
  • Notices, time bars and deeming provisions
  • Detailed claims and contemporary evidence
  • Engineer’s determinations
  • DAB/DAAB involvement and dispute avoidance
Week 11TBA
12Dispute Resolution
  • Dispute boards, pros and cons
  • DAB 1999 and DAAB 2017 process
  • Procedural Rules
  • Decisions and NODs
  • Amicable settlement
  • The pathways to arbitration
  • Arbitration overview
Week 12TBA
  • Procurement pathways and contract selection
  • FIDIC and its structure, role and Task Groups
  • FIDIC suite of contracts
  • Risk allocation
  • Form selection
  • FIDIC structure, funding and ancillary agreements
  • Contract formation under common and civil law
  • Contract interpretation and implied terms
  • Use of Contract Data and Particular Conditions
  • Indemnities and insurance
  • Defects liability and decennial liability
  • Limitation and exclusion clauses
  • Rights and obligations of the Employer and Contractor
  • The role, responsibility and liability of the Engineer and
    Employer’s Representative
  • Subcontracting
  • Bonds and guarantees.
  • Payment, applications for payment, interim certificates
  • The final statement and financial management
  • Taking Over Certificate
  • Performance Certificate
  • Instructions and variations
  • Method of measurement
  • Evaluating quantum
  • Implications on the project completion and related
    prolongations costs.
  • Dispute avoidance
  • Notices, time bars and conditions precedent
  • Breach and proving loss
  • Evidence, progress reports and contemporary records
  • Engineer’s determinations
  • Typical heads of claim, logic, calculation and
    substantiation
  • Valuing claims
  • Global claims
  • Prolongation
  • Disruption and productivity
  • Head office overheads and profit
  • Possession, licences and completion
  • Extension of time clauses
  • Liquidated damages
  • The Prevention Principle
  • Sectional completion, and partial possession
  • Demonstrating delay and related evidence
  • Taking over
  • Proving delay, forensic delay analysis techniques,
    protocols and practice
  • Critical Path Method
  • Excusable and compensable delay
  • Concurrency, pacing, float, contingencies, and
    mitigation
  • Introduction to SCL Protocol and the AACE Forensic
    Schedule Analysis
  • Suspension and termination by Employer and Contractor

  • Force majeure and exceptional events

  • Resulting delay and financial consequence

  • Completion, tests on completion, taking over and tests
    after completion

  • Sectional completion and partial possession

  • Delay damages and penalties

  • The claims pathway in 1999 and 2017 compared
  • Claims and disputes (as defined or otherwise)
  • Notices, time bars and deeming provisions
  • Detailed claims and contemporary evidence
  • Engineer’s determinations
  • DAB/DAAB involvement and dispute avoidance
  • Dispute boards, pros and cons
  • DAB 1999 and DAAB 2017 process
  • Procedural Rules
  • Decisions and NODs
  • Amicable settlement
  • The pathways to arbitration
  • Arbitration overview

Expert Faculty

Our FIDIC Contracts Expert Programme (FCX Programme) is led by globally recognized faculty, comprising FIDIC specialists, construction lawyers, engineers, and dispute resolution experts. With deep industry experience, they provide practical insights and expert guidance to help participants master FIDIC contracts.

Programme Director

Professor Nicholas Gould

Nicholas is a construction, energy and international arbitration lawyer.  He is a solicitor-advocate, chartered surveyor, accredited adjudicator and mediator.  Nicholas sits as arbitrator and on dispute boards. He acts for contractors, employers and governments in the building, construction, engineering, infrastructure, transport, energy, oil and gas, and process engineering sector. Frequently selected to advise on high value complex projects including Hinkley Nuclear Power Plant, T5 Heathrow, Muscat Airport, The Louvre in Abu Dhabi, Expo 2020 in Dubai, CERN’s nuclear research facility, the world’s most leaning building at Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi, and substantial hydro power projects (including Africa’s largest hydro power project).

Early registrations are encouraged. Seats fill up quickly!

Michael Pogue

Michael Pogue is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb) and sits as a Member of Council for the Academy of Experts (MAE).

Michael is based in London and regularly appointed as an independent quantum expert to provide opinion on all types of construction claims in international arbitrations and litigations. He is particularly adept at assessing claims with complex factual matrices such as inflationary impacts, defective works and the re-procurement and completion of works following termination. 

Michael is consistently recommended and marked out as a Future Leader in Who’s Who Legal. He is recognised by his client and instructing solicitors as being “extremely thorough in his approach”, “able to see beyond the instructions given and raises matters of importance”; and “approachable, knowledgeable and an asset in the context of on-going litigation or arbitration”. His analysis and opinion have also been described as the “gold standard” by his instructing lawyers.

Michael is also a qualified barrister providing him with a deeper understanding of evidential and procedural aspects when providing expert opinion in international arbitration and commercial litigation.

Margarita Papaioannou

Margarita Papaioannou is a senior director in the Expert Services practice, based in the London office. She is a civil engineer and delay expert with 13 years of experience in the construction industry, specializing in forensic construction programming, project advisory services and dispute resolution.

Mark Pantry

Mark specialises in advising on domestic and international construction, engineering and infrastructure projects. He acts for a wide range of clients including contractors, developers, consortiums, investors, and employers, advising on the full lifecycle of a project from its inception to project completion.

Mark has experience in advising on and negotiating amendments to all major standard form construction contracts including the JCT, NEC, FIDIC, LOGIC, IChemE and ICE suites of contracts. He also has considerable experience of drafting and negotiating bespoke construction documents used internationally, including EPC contracts. 

Mark is ranked as a key lawyer for non-contentious construction by the Legal 500 UK, and is commended for “working with clients to get deals over the line” and “making himself available, working to deadlines and helping the client achieve successful outcomes”.

Claire King

Claire King is a partner at Fenwick Elliott LLP specialising in the resolution of both domestic and international construction, engineering and energy disputes.  She has in-depth knowledge of the FIDIC form of contract and has worked across a wide range of sectors within the industry including in relation to power, desal, water / sewage treatment, data centres and nuclear implicated facilities.  She is recommended in legal 500 for international arbitration and is an alumni of the King’s MSC for Construction Law for which she came top in her year both years running.

Jatinder Garcha

Jatinder has nearly 20 years’ experience in non-contentious domestic and international construction and projects work. He acts for the full spectrum of clients involved in the development process including financial institutions, pension and property funds, government departments, investors, developers, contractors, consultants and tenants, advising from inception and procurement strategies to project completion. Jatinder has been noted as “extremely astute” in The Legal 500 UK guide regarding the development of a waste-to-energy facility in Essex.

Jatinder has broad experience of dealing with and negotiating many standard forms of contract including the FIDIC, LOGIC, JCT, NEC, ICE, IChemE, RIBA and ACE suite of documents. He also has considerable experience of drafting and negotiating bespoke construction and commercial contracts, including EPC contracts, bonds, guarantees, memorandums of understating, heads of terms, consortium agreements, joint venture agreements, framework agreements and facility management contracts.

Giuseppe Franco

Giuseppe is an Italian qualified lawyer with experience in international arbitration and litigation before the Italian courts. 

As an Associate at Fenwick Elliott, he advises and represents clients in both contentious and non-contentious matters, particularly focusing on disputes in the construction and energy sectors.

He holds a postgraduate degree in Construction Law and Dispute Resolution from King’s College London. Prior to joining Fenwick Elliott, he trained and practiced at an international law firm in Milan, where he represented clients in the commercial, construction, energy, and insurance sectors in both arbitration and litigation. He completed his undergraduate studies at Bocconi University in Milan.

Giuseppe is a regular contributor to leading publications on construction law and dispute resolution. His recent articles have appeared in the International Construction Law Review, the International Energy Law Review, the Kluwer Arbitration Blog, and the Italian journal Rivista Trimestrale degli Appalti.  

In 2018, he was awarded the first prize by the European Society of Construction Law for his dissertation “Dispute Boards: A Comparative Study of International Practice”.

David Falkenstern

David Falkenstern is a managing director in the Expert Services practice, based in the London office. He is a civil engineer with over 20 years of experience in the construction industry. He specializes in providing expert advice and consultation on major construction projects in the areas of programming, programme assessment, planning, productivity, time impact, delay and disruption, with a focus on resolving disputes.

Jeremy Glover

Current President of the Executive Board of Region 2 of the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation (DRBF), Jeremy is a partner at Fenwick Elliott LLP, the UK’s largest construction law firm and is listed as a leader in his field in Who’s Who Legal: Construction 2021. 

An accredited adjudicator and member of the CIArb Adjudication Sub-Committee, Jeremy is the co-author of Understanding the FIDIC Red and Yellow Book: A Clause by Clause Commentary, the third edition of which was published in 2018, and lead editor of Building Contract Disputes: Practice and Precedents. Jeremy is a member of the Board of Examiners on the Construction Law MSc programme at King’s College, and also teaches on the MSc Building Information Modelling Management Programme at Middlesex University.

Alice Gambato

Alice is a construction lawyer at First Rail in the UK, and has worked as legal counsel for engineering, technology and construction companies and employers including Samsung, Salini (Webuild) APT, Permasteelisa, Daewoo, Eleclink (Eurotunnel), Cimolai (Steelworks), Emitec (UAE), Huawei, ADNOC, ARABSAT. She has experience of the major standard forms of contract including FIDIC, JCT and NEC. Her contentious experience includes Arbitration and Court cases such as: GERDP (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project): value of ICC Arbitration claim 900Million USD (value of contract: 5BN USD); Eleclink v Balfour Beatty (ICC Arbitration claim: 300M GBP).

Her non-contentious experience in drafting and negotiating bespoke contracts including professional appointments, consultants and Sub-Consultants’ appointments, insurances, collateral warranties and negotiating amendments. She conducted mediations on various construction and engineering projects including Renewables, Mining, Dredging, Tunnelling, Cable l Solar panels, Battery Storage (UAE-Saudi Arabia) and cabling, railways, indirect burners, high voltage cables. She as also a part time lecturer at the College of Contract Management.

Murray Armes

Murray has enjoyed a diverse and rewarding career in the international construction industry, where prior to joining J.S. Held, Murray was the Founder and Managing Director of Sense Studio Limited. Specialising in dispute avoidance and resolution, he is a FIDIC President’s List international adjudicator and on the arbitration, dispute board, adjudication and mediation panels of CIArb, RIBA, RICS and CEDR, among others, working on significant appointments relating to construction disputes. His verifiable track record in dispute avoidance influences his work as a Dispute Board Member, and he is a Past President of Region 2 of the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation. In recent years, Murray has been appointed as Dispute Board Member for the €17bn ITER Project in France and also for the High Luminosity Project at CERN and more recently for a large nuclear project under the ICC DB Rules, an embassy project in Central Africa and a power project in West Africa. 

He has developed specialist expertise in energy and transport projects, including airports and metro rail projects.