Building and Construction

Choosing The Right Advisor Can Save You Millions Of Dollars

Laina has worked on a wide range of building and construction disputes since 1998. She has represented many building and construction professionals including engineers, architects, surveyors, town planners, builders and sub-contractors. She has also utilised her skills to act for plaintiffs in significant disputes involving engineering disputes to achieve favourable outcomes. The building and construction disputes have ranged in value from as little as $50,000 up to $30million.

The subject matter of the building and construction disputes that Laina has been involved in are widespread. They include:

• engineering failures resulting from under-designed pavements at container handling facilities as well as cold stores, defective apartment buildings involving widespread water ingress and cracking, under-designed sewerage tanks in sewerage treatment plants in Lorne and Apollo Bay and failed chicken sheds used in the cultivation of ‘free range’ chickens in Queensland,
• geo-technical issues in relation to the collapse of the Lane Cove Tunnel during the construction,
  issues in relation to inappropriate selection of materials in the design process which have led to selections that are not fit for purpose;
• responsibilities and obligations of the architect as administrator of the building contract; and
  delay claims by 2 sub-contractors in relation to the Conservatorium of Music project.

Laina’s expertise in building and construction law and in particular the obligations of design professionals is reflected in the fact that she is the author of the chapter on professional liability in the third edition of Bailey & Bell’s Construction Law in Australia, Thomson Reuters – a text used in the teaching of the University of Melbourne’s course in Masters in Construction Law. She also taught at the University of Melbourne Law School the topics of Insuring Risk in Construction Projects and Security for Performance in the now defunct course of Rights and Liabilities for 5 semesters.