IChemE: What Engineers need to know about Contracts

The perennially popular course on what Engineers need to know about contracts (- but don't get taught on their Chem Eng courses, is my suggestion for a subtitle) is being run online on 28th and 30th November 2022.  

Full details are here.

This is two half days on separate days, and assumes no previous knowledge or understanding of contracts or the law.  In fact that is rather the point.  Starts 10am UK time, finishes at 1pm UK time each day.

The course is based on the contract law of England and Wales, but discusses other legal systems and so is (hopefully) more generally applicable around the world.

Hope to see you there.  Or at your place.  We have run this both online and the  traditional in person two full day course for clients recently, and the team at IChemE are always happy to arrange to do so for your organisation.  

Force Majeure and Covid-19

One of the things that I say in my courses on contracts is that it is only when things we go wrong that we actually look at the fine print in the contract.  Well the Corvid 19 situation is definitely a time when people go and look up what their contract actually says, particularly the Force Majeure clause - if there is one.

Force Majeure is a well known phrase that means different things to different people.  In fact some legal commentators state that there is really no such thing as a Force Majeure clause, and that everything could be covered by the doctrine of frustration or other legal principles.

The general idea of Force Majeure is a clause to deal with events that are outside the control of the relevant party, were irresistible (an Act of God) and unforeseeable.  Now that seems easy to understand, until you start delving into it.  The recent floods were irresistible, but were they unforeseeable? If they were now, would they be unforeseeable if they happened in the same places next year?

In standard contracts we may have a Force Majeure clause (or may not) which states what is covered.  Surely the Covid 19 epidemic is the sort of event that is covered?  Well, I was recently comparing standard Force Majeure clauses from standard forms of contract from IChemE and LOGIC.  One explicitly identified pandemic as covered - the other didn't.  Which was which?  And what do your contracts say?  Well this is the point where I suggest you go and have a look for yourself and check.  Hopefully, before it is too late.


Lawyer and legal commentator David Allen Green had a useful analysis on his twitter feed, here.

The new season: Contract Management and Compliant PQQ courses in Manchester 16/17 September 2015

It's not just football that has a new season.  We always have a relatively quiet summer for training, and then things pick up again in September.  Like the transfer window a few things are usually up in the air till the last minute.

But, I can confirm that I shall be running a couple of courses for BIP Solutions Pass Training in Manchester this month
Wednesday 16th September I shall be running Drafting a Compliant PQQ - which is a rather interesting topic given the changes to PQQs this year.
Thursday 17th September it is Contract Management - which is a topic that I know I always drone on about, but has always been vitally important and given the changes in the PCR 2015 will now be even more important than before.

Both are at the Renaissance Marriot in Manchester, just off Deansgate and down the hill a bit from Harvey Nichols (in case you need any more incentive to come along), next to a multi-storey car park.

Hope to see you there.  Now where is that suit and tie?

Procurex North #PXNorth

Procurex North #PXNorth was what I did yesterday.  And great fun it was too.  Apparently I don't look anything like my picture.  Full houses all round until the last (repeat) time, and lots of questions and one to one sessions to fill in that awkward time between sessions that I would otherwise have wasted resting, eating my lunch or checking my notes for the next session...

Thankfully nothing I couldn't answer, despite the newness of the regulations - and some genuinely interesting news about a new innovation partnership in the North West which will a) be one of the first (if not the first) and b) of great potential value.  Hope to hear and share more later.

Procurex South is 10th March and has the added advantage of Digby Barker in the Supplier zone rather than me - I am running Contract Management in Southampton that day if you want to come along.

Oh, and the Yang Sing restaurant is just as good as it was when I lived in Manchester a dozen years ago.  Great night out.

Contract Management training 19th February/10th March 2015

I am running a Contract Management course for PASS (part of BIP Solutions), and they asked me to write a few word about it for their blog.  Here it is - Essential Contract Management.

I am running the course 19th February in Liverpool, and 10th March 2015 in Southampton (but not 25th March in London, because I am running Preparing Perfect Tenders that day in Birmingham).

Hope to see you there.