Mr Nicholas Gould > Fenwick Elliott LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Mr Nicholas Gould

+44 20 7421 1986 ngould@fenwickelliott.com View profile

Work Department

Construction and engineering.

Position

Nicholas is an international specialist arbitration, construction and engineering lawyer.

Nicholas conducts a mix of international dispute resolution and projects work. Nicholas acts for contractors, employers and governments in a wide range of technically complex construction sectors internationally including: energy, infrastructure, rail and metro, communications, industrial, waste, water, desalination, process plant, oil and gas, and petrochemical, as well as defects, collapse and fire safety.  Advising on numerous power projects around the world, he has advised in relation to Europe’s largest gas combined-cycle power plant, as well as on nuclear (new and old), oil, coal, hydro, offshore wind farm, biomass, solar and innovative ocean current projects and data centres.

Nicholas’ dispute resolution experience spans litigation, arbitration, adjudication, DAB/DRB/DAAB, mediation, early neutral evaluation and expert determination.  His FIDIC experience is wide ranging including acting as a special adviser to FIDIC in respect of its 2017 edition contracts and in 2021 he was the FIDIC Adjudicator of the Year. Nicholas’ contract experience includes NEC, IChemE, JCT, MF/1, LOGIC, bespoke EPC/EPCM and PFI/PPP contracts. Nicholas is frequently selected to work on high value complex projects, including advising BAA in respect of T5 (£4.2 billion), the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, Expo 2020 in Dubai, CERN’s nuclear research facility, and the world’s most leaning building at Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi.

In the Legal 500 he is listed in the Hall of Fame for International Arbitration and has been described by clients as “eloquent” and having “excellent advocacy skills”. The directory has also recognised him for being “extremely good – he is very convincing during hearings at drilling down the issues to the core”.

Nicholas is Visiting Professor at King’s College London and a vice president of the ICC’s Arbitration Commission (past chairman, Standing Sub-Committee ICC’s International Centre for Expertise 2007–14). He is past president of the DRBF and past chairman of the Society of Construction Law. He has been published widely in the field of construction law and dispute resolution.

Career

Partner Fenwick Elliott 2004, associate 2002; qualified 1999; trained Masons. Formerly worked as a senior lecturer at the University of Westminster. Before joining the university in 1993, he worked in the construction industry for a period of approximately 8 years. A solicitor and chartered surveyor, his dual qualifications provide a layer of expertise that adds a practical level to his work.

Nicholas is a Visiting Professor and an Executive Committee Member at the Centre of Construction Law, King’s College London. Nicholas regularly lectures at King’s College London, and for the ICC, DRBF, FIDIC, Informa at their summer school at Cambridge University, ICE, RICS, NEC and CEDR, together with a variety of in-house and ad hoc lectures. He frequently lectures on webinars, and he has made a live radio appearance on BBC Southern Radio. Nicholas chaired IBC’s First Construction Law Web Congress. Currently he is the course director for the new FIDIC & King’s College London intensive summer school.

He has been published widely in the field of construction law and dispute resolution, and won a Silver Award at the CIOB Literary Awards in 2000 for his book Dispute Resolution in the Construction Industry published by Thomas Telford. The Rt. Hon. Sir Philip Otton described the book as “the most fascinating publication to come across [his] desk for many a year”.

Nicholas was also lead author of Mediating Construction Disputes:  An Evaluation of Existing Practice (2010) which received a CEDR award for excellence. The Rt. Hon. Lord Woolf commented in the House of Lords in January 2010 that: “Mediation is no longer a novelty in the UK. … Commendably, a solicitor, Nicholas Gould, has now with the assistance of a team of supporters completed research for King’s College London … As I would expect, the survey showed that the process led to a saving of time and cost in a significant number of cases. I warmly congratulate Mr Gould and his team on the empirical data that they have assembled.”

Languages

English

Memberships

• past president and member, Dispute Resolution Board Foundation (since 2003);
• vice president, ICC’s Arbitration Commission (since 2008);
• solicitor of the Supreme Court England & Wales (1999) Solicitor-Advocate (2012);
• fellow, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (2000 FRICS, ARICS since 1994);
• member, Chartered Institute of Building (1996 MCIOB, Associate since 1990);
• fellow, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb 2007, MCIArb since 2003, past member, CIArb’s Policy Sub-Committee 2010–2016);
• FIDIC certified President’s Appointment Adjudicator List (2012);
• certified adjudicator, Royal Institute of British Architects;
• member, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC);
• past chairman, ICC’s International Sub-Committee for Expertise (2008–2015);
• member, London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA);
• member, International Bar Association (IBA);
• member, Technology and Construction Solicitor’s Association (TeCSA) and TeCSA Adjudicator;
• member, Society of Construction Law (SCL) past Chairman (2006-07);
• member, Adjudication Society (since formation 1999) past chairman (2008-10) of and current case editor since inception (1999);
• lead mediator, Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (1998);
• freeman, Worshipful Company of Arbitrators (2007);
• member, King’s College Construction Law Association (KCCLA);
• past chairman, ICC’s ICANN gTLD primary internet address dispute resolution expertise service (2013–2015);
• registered legal consultant, DIFC (registered Arbitrator 2012);
• arbitrator, Cour Europeenne D’Arbitrage, Milano, Italy (2021);
• SCL – Society for Computers and Law, Adjudication Scheme SCLA Tech Law Panel Adjudicator (2020);
• CMA – Croatian Mediation Association (2012);
• honorary member, Croatian Mediation Association (March 2012);
• CEA, Cour Europeenne D’Arbitrage, Milano, Italy – Arbitrator (2021).

Education

Westminster University (1992 BSc First Class Hons Quantity Surveying; 1995 Post-graduate Dip Law); Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Prize for best student and a prize winner of the KPMG Faculty Award for major project cost planning; College of Law, London (1996 Dip LPC Commendation); University College London (1997 LLM Law); successfully completed the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation’s DRB/DAB practices and procedures training and the advanced chairing workshop (2004, San Francisco).

Leisure

Running, sailing, diving.