Keating Chambers

Adam Walton specialises in domestic and international construction, engineering, energy, and professional negligence disputes. He accepts instructions to advise, draft, and provide representation at all stages of litigation or other dispute resolution process. Unusually for his year of call, the majority of Adam’s work is as sole counsel and a significant majority of his instructions come to him either as a product of his reputation or on a repeat basis.

Notable experience as sole counsel includes:

• Acting for the claimant in ongoing multi-party High Court (TCC) proceedings against a contractor, an architect, and a structural engineer.
• Preparing, advising on, and appearing at numerous applications in both the county court and the High Court (TCC and Chancery Division).
• Appearing at multiple CCMCs.
• Acting for the claimant in a multi-party High Court (TCC) claim, which concerned recovery under the indemnity provisions of the JCT 2016 suite of contracts.
• Defending a multinational cladding manufacturer in High Court (TCC) proceedings, which related to alleged defects on a high-profile infrastructure project in Dubai.
• Acting in numerous adjudications, which together have included disputes relating to payment, true valuation, professional negligence, assignment and transferred loss, and reasonable settlement.
• Acting for the claimant in ongoing High Court (TCC) proceedings, which relate to the defective design and installation of a substructure.

Notable experience as junior counsel includes:

• Acting as part of the counsel teams led by Tom Owen KC on two complex, high value claims: one concerning the largest ever road infrastructure project in Northern Ireland, the other concerning alleged fire-stopping and structural defects in a commercial development.
• Two ongoing defect (fire-stopping and water ingress) claims in the High Court (TCC), led by Brenna Conroy.
• Acting as part of the counsel team led by Vincent Moran KC on a c.£200 million DAB arising out of a substantial infrastructure project in Africa.
• Acting as part of the counsel team led by Simon Hughes KC on a £400 million ICC Arbitration concerning a project in the Middle East.

Adam has published work in several leading law journals, and a number of those published works have been cited in court, leading textbooks, and further academic pieces. Most notably, Adam’s work on scope of duty is cited in Chitty on Contracts, whilst his work on the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 is cited in Clerk and Lindsell on Torts. He is also a contributor to Keating on Construction Contracts.

Prior to joining Keating, Adam worked at the Law Commission of England and Wales as a Research Assistant and at the Court of Appeal as Lord Justice Coulson’s Judicial Assistant. Whilst working as a Judicial Assistant, Adam’s work was consistently lauded by members of the Court of Appeal for its quality and clarity; Lord Justice Coulson notably describing him as “incredibly clever” and “exceptionally good at identifying the issues at the heart of a case”.