Paul Bury > Keating Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
Keating Chambers Offices
15 ESSEX STREET
LONDON
WC2R 3AA
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Paul Bury
Position
Paul Bury is a highly experienced specialist in oral and written advocacy in:
- domestic and international commercial construction,
- professional negligence,
- energy,
- insurance,
- offshore,
- infrastructure projects, and
- regulatory disputes.
He has been described as “razor-sharp…first class [and] a future star of the Construction Bar”.
Paul is regularly instructed as sole Counsel or as Junior Counsel in a broad range of disputes including highly complex and high-value High Court proceedings, international and domestic arbitration (in particular ICC, LCIA and UNCITRAL), adjudication and mediation.
He has extensive advocacy experience in High Court trials, applications, procedural hearings, and adjudication work as well as in arbitrations and adjudications. Paul has been praised as “a skilled advocate, delivering effective oral arguments and cross-examination at hearings”.
Paul has gained particular expertise in cases involving issues of delay and disruption, defects, and contractual termination, and cases involving professional negligence and insurance issues, particularly those involving structural engineers, architects, cladding issues, and energy technology. Paul has extensive knowledge of the JCT, NEC, IChemE Red Book and FIDIC standard form contracts and of the offshore LOGIC and SAJ forms.
Some of the larger TCC matters he has been involved in include Energy Works (Hull) Ltd v MW High Tech Projects, Bluewater Energy Services BV v Mercon Steel Structures BV and Vivergo Fuels Ltd v Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd and, in adjudication, Eurocom v Siemens. Paul’s international arbitration practice has seen him act for clients on projects based in jurisdictions such as South Africa, Dubai, Hong Kong, South Korea, China, Qatar and Nigeria.
Having previously worked for a leading international law firm in Brussels on complex regulatory issues involving blue-chip international companies, Paul is adept at taking a commercial approach to legal issues and dispute resolution and receives praise from clients for his ability “to penetrate difficult details” with “an impressive grasp of the technical detail of a case”. He is recommended as a leading junior in the legal directories for construction, energy and professional negligence and is described as “undoubtedly a star of the future”.
Career
Keating Chambers, 2011
Pupillage, Keating Chambers, 2010-2011
Parliamentary Assistant, European Parliament, Brussels, 2009-2010
Research Assistant, Keating Chambers, 2008-2009
Called to the Bar, (Inner Temple) 2008
Languages
English, basic French and German.
Memberships
TECBAR, SCL
Education
College of Law, London – BVC 2007-2008
Exhibitioner, Inner Temple 2007
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, Brussels 2005-2007
Pembroke College, Oxford University – BCL 2004-2005
Pembroke College, Oxford University – BA (Law) 2001-2004
Lenzie Academy, Glasgow 1995-2001
Leisure
Watching and playing sports, including football, rugby, tennis and golf. He also has a keen interest in film and music.
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Construction
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 4Paul Bury – Keating Chambers ‘Paul is an absolute star. He has an impressive grip of all legal issues but it is his manner that sets him above the others. He works extremely hard and brings so many new angles to cases. A joy to work with and he will go very far.’
As the ‘strongest specialist construction set in the country’ according to some, Keating Chambers tackles an array of significant domestic and international disputes, with particular expertise in fire safety and cladding related cases. Jonathan Selby KC and Tom Coulson continue to represent the housebuilder in Martlet Homes vs Mulalley & Co, a major post-Grenfell TCC fire safety and cladding case, while Simon Hughes KC and James Frampton are acting for the contractor. Sarah Williams is instructed by Shepherd Construction Limited in another major cladding claim. Other key cases include Piers Stansfield KC, who is representing Cambridge City Council in a High Court action regarding design defects in a major infrastructure project, and Paul Bury acted as counsel for Outotec, defending several liquidated damages, defects, and termination costs claims on a waste-to-energy power plant. Significant team changes include Tom Owen KC taking silk in March 2024.
London Bar > Energy
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 3Paul Bury – Keating Chambers ‘Paul has a frighteningly good grasp of detail, gives solid strategic advice, and is unflappable in a crisis.’
London Bar > Professional negligence
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 4Paul Bury –Keating Chambers ‘An impressive junior.’