Philip Fidler has over 50 years of experience in the construction industry as a quantity surveyor, arbitrator, and adjudicator. He has acted as an arbitrator for over 70 cases since 1988 and as an adjudicator for over 150 cases since 1999. He also has experience as an expert witness on construction disputes, having participated in around 30 cases. Fidler is a member of several professional organizations related to alternative dispute resolution and construction law.
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Philip Fidler FRICS, FCIArb, FDBF
Chartered Quantity Surveyor, Chartered Arbitrator, and Accredited Adjudicator
Philip has been involved in the construction industry since 1966 but latterly as a director of
various consultancies specialising in disputes and their avoidance. His projects as a quantity
surveyor in the UK and overseas ranged in value from a few thousand to four hundred million
pounds.
He has practised as an Arbitrator since 1988 with about 70 appointments to date of which
the vast majority involved construction matters. These include being the eventual Arbitrator
chosen by the parties following the well known Court of Appeal judgment on 7th
December
2005 between Collins (Contractors) Ltd and Baltic Quay Management (1994) Ltd.
He has had about 150 appointments as a Construction Adjudicator since his first in 1999.
These include a two-part Decision including costs which was the subject of Mr Justice
Akenhead’s judgment enforcing it in All Metal Roofing versus KAMM Properties Ltd on 7th
October 2010. He recently concluded a Decision for a strongly contested Adjudication where
the amounts in dispute were in the region of £1.3 million.
He has been appointed as Expert Witness on about thirty occasions including acting as
quantum expert in Norwich Union versus Schal and Others which concerned the £100 million
plus dispute in respect of the Galleries Shopping Complex in Bristol, which actually subdivided
into 40 major elements involving the various trade contractors, consultants, and other parties.
At the time this was probably the largest construction litigation to face the Technology and
Construction Court. He has given testimony in court on several occasions including one
where Donald Keating QC and John Dyson QC (as he then was) were opposing leading
counsel.
Over the years he has also personally advised various bodies and companies on projects
ranging from the programming aspect of services at Wembley Stadium to delays concerning a
residential property in Hampton Wick. He advised: upon the Employer's suggestion to
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terminate the Contractor's employment at the THORP Nuclear Reprocessing Plant, Cumbria;
the services, heating, air-conditioning, and ventilation subcontractor regarding disruption and
delay claims for Farningham Hospital, Bromley, Kent; the integration of contractor designed
work packages with the consultant designed works at British Airways' Dragonfly Project,
Cardiff; and the parties concerning the collapse of storm water retention tanks at a large
business park in the Midlands. He was director for seven years of a specialist group who
dispensed such advice within an international project management and construction
consultancy, before being head-hunted to become the London based Director of an
international company of claims representatives.
His experience covers most types of building project but also projects involving motorways,
sewage works, sewerage schemes, piling, diaphragm walling, retaining walls, airline hanger
and repair facilities, and other civil engineering procedures. The range of contractual
procedures with which he is familiar include: lump sum with or without contractor design,
management contracting, construction management, term contract arrangements,
subcontracts of all kinds, and ad hoc or custom drafted terms and conditions.
Particular projects of interest are: the complete internal refurbishment and upgrade of Shell-
Mex House, The Strand, London; the flood damage dispute at the offices of the Royal Bank of
Scotland, the Angel, Islington; the steelwork dispute at the solicitor's office complex at Little
Britain, London; the tunnelling dispute at the Mersey Estuary Pollution Avoidance Scheme;
Ministry of Defence projects at: Devonport, England, Aldergrove, Ireland, and on the Falkland
Islands; a villa complex in Ras Al Khaima; Director overseeing the regular delay analysis
checks performed by staff for the Road Bridge Project, Lisbon, Portugal; and a Water
Treatment Project, Izmir, Turkey. There are many more.
Philip is or has been a member of various committees concerned with the advancement of
ADR including: Chairman of the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators’ Pupillage Scheme,
Chairman of its Charitable Trust, and Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators South
East Branch. He was recently a committee member of the Adjudication Society.
He became an arbitrator member of the prestigious Society of Construction Arbitrators in
March 2011.
He was a visiting lecturer on Arbitration at Kingston University and is currently an approved
tutor/examiner/assessor for various arbitration and adjudication modules of the Chartered
Institute of Arbitrators. He co-founded the Arbitration Club in 1991 with Professor Cato. He
occasionally submits articles on construction and dispute matters to various publications. He
took part in preparing the Adjudication Guidance of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and
the Adjudication Society.
He has been a member of the Society of Construction Law since 1986, and a member of the
Arbrix club since 1988 (the arbitration and adjudication club of the Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors);
He became a Fellow of the Dispute Board Federation in December 2014 and a member of the
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Chartered Institute of Arbitrators' Dispute Board panel in February 2015.
His construction and dispute experience came about during spells at: Gleeds, Gardiner and
Theobald, Nigel Rose and Partners, Robinson and Roods, J R Knowles, Bucknall Austin, and
Trett Consulting. Since 2004 he has been sole director, owner, and fee earner of Dispute
Decisions Ltd.