Archor

Rory Abel was recently delighted to take up an invitation to speak at Quartz Project Services' away day, joining a panel to discuss the impact of the Building Safety Act 2022. As the photos show, there are certainly worse surroundings for a day of training! The BSA continues to be one of the biggest issues facing developers and contractors in the industry - whether on planned, ongoing or legacy projects. We've given advice on all manner of issues that arise under the BSA, and have provided bespoke training to clients. If you have BSA queries or would like to see what training we can offer, please get in touch. And we have some building safety resources in the Archor webinar archive - check out our YouTube channel: youtube.com/@archor

This time last week we were sitting down for lunch ahead of the annual Steele Bodger match in #Cambridge 🏉 As ever it was a great opportunity to see lots of friendly faces, and thankfully a little warmer than last year! Thanks to our guests for joining us and making it another great occasion on the Archor social calendar - we're looking forward to next year already.

🎉 A huge congratulations to Molly Lockerbie, who becomes Archor's latest fully qualified solicitor 🎉 Champagne glasses were the order of last week at Archor HQ, as Molly found out the news that her hard work over the last year+ of studying (and working!) has paid off, and she was officially admitted to the roll on 1 December. You can read more about Molly, and the rest of the brilliant Team Archor, on our website: archor.co.uk

Last week the High Court handed down a decision in a case Archor was involved in which shows the difficulties insolvent companies will have in effectively enforcing adjudication decisions where there is a crossclaim. The judgment reinforces the position that where there is a genuine crossclaim, enforcement will not be possible without adequate security for the solvent company’s costs - good news for the many contractors that face claims from insolvent companies despite having incurred considerable losses. Oli Worth acted for the contractor in resisting the insolvent sub-contractor's attempts to enforce an adjudication decision without security, instructing Luke Wygas of 4 Pump Court. More detail on the effect of the decision is available in the article on our website - click below to read ⬇

Thanks very much to everyone who joined us last night at our Cambridge party - lots of food, drink and (most importantly) excellent company. We are now officially off the ground in Cambridge in the next phase of our plans for world domination 🚀

🎉 It's now just under a week until our Cambridge office launch party at Clayton Hotels on Station Road - 6-9pm on Thursday 14 November. Join us for drinks, canapes, and great company! We're looking forward to seeing lots of contacts and clients. If you're able to make it and haven't let us know, just a reminder to please RSVP using the following link: tiny.cc/ArchorParty If you can only make it for a short time, that's not a problem - please feel free to still pop in. And if you can't make it all, perhaps drop us a line anyway and we can catch up another time.... To all those that can make it though, we look forward to seeing you on Thursday 🥂🍻

In the wake of high-profile main contractor insolvencies like ISG, Buckingham Group, Readie and Henry Construction (to name but a few), lots has been written about terminating contracts and the fallout for the supply chain. But that’s only part of the picture: the job (usually) still needs to be completed. Andrew Rush takes a look at two of the most popular procurement methods in those circumstances - construction management and management contracting - in a new article. Well worth a read now, and no doubt, unfortunately, one that we'll be referring to again in the future. We've dealt with many projects where insolvency has reared its head, dealing with the immediate fallout, arranging new contracts, and claiming under bonds and other security. If you are concerned about a potential insolvency or need advise on how to progress your project, get in touch - it's never too early to start to protect your position, whatever your role on a project.

We’re delighted to once again be recognised as the leading construction lawyers in East Anglia by both legal directories, Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners. With more ranked partners than any other firm and some stellar testimonials, whoever said this to Chambers probably puts it most pleasingly: "I’ve dealt with multiple people from Archor and they have all been outstanding". It takes a real team effort, from clients and everyone at Team Archor, to maintain these brilliant rankings year after year.  So thanks to everyone that makes Archor what it is – here’s to many more years at the top of our game.

The (landmark) tenth edition of our Aggregate newsletter is landing in subscriber's inboxes as we speak - view it below, or on our website archor.co.uk. This edition, with a refreshed look and feel (we hope you like it!) features enlightening articles from newly-qualified Jessica Garrod (🍾), Andrew Rush, Hayley Morgan and Lucy Day.

We’re delighted to announce the launch of our Cambridge office. Our second office reflects our growth over the first few years of Archor, and brings us closer to our many Cambridge-based clients and contacts. At the same time, we also welcome Simon Franklin to the team. Simon has 20+ years experience as a construction specialist, and his arrival significantly strengthens our development and non-contentious offerings. He is familiar with the Cambridge market having led the construction offering of a full service law firm in the city, following a similar role at a regional firm in Manchester and earlier experience in London. Partners Oli Worth and Rory Abel will be primarily based in Cambridge, alongside Simon and Shahbaz Mohammed, an Associate focussing on development and other non-contentious work. We'll be celebrating this exciting milestone in Archor's development at a party in November - watch out for further details in the next few weeks.