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Roula Harfouche, Partner, presented at LegalPlus Asia’s Qatar & MENA: 6th Annual International Arbitration Virtual Summit on the subject of post-M&A valuation disputes.

About the Speaker

Roula Harfouche
Partner

Roula Harfouche is a Partner with HKA in London. She specialises in the assessment of damages and complex valuation issues in litigation and international arbitration contexts. She is experienced in matters involving breaches of contract, investment treaty claims, transaction-related disputes and intellectual property infringements. She has been valuing companies, listed and unlisted securities, and intellectual property rights in commercial and contentious contexts since 2000, and has provided valuation or damages assessment services in more than 80 disputes.

Roula is recognised as a leading expert witness by Who’s Who Legal in the Thought Leaders Global Elite list, in Arbitration, for the quantum of damages and in forensic accounting. She is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and a member of the Valuation and Forensic Groups of the ICAEW as well as a member of the Society of Share and Business Valuers.

Roula has testified in both English and French and has worked on matters in litigation and in various arbitration fora. Roula has supported clients across a diverse range of sectors including telecoms, professional services, utilities, energy, industrial, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and transport.

HKA was pleased to sponsor and participate in the “GAR Interactive Damages” webinar on Thursday 4th February 2021.

Along with an esteemed panel, Roula Harfouche, Partner in HKA’s Forensic Accounting and Commercial Damages practice joined “GAR’s Interactive Question Time” to address topical questions covering subject matter such as “The Challenges of COVID-19, The Best Technical Set-Ups for Virtual Hearings and the Pro’s and Con’s of Remote Cross Examination”. The conference centered around panel discussions on arbitration proceedings, covering “What Arbitrators want from Lawyers and Experts” and “What Users, their Counsel and Experts want from Arbitrators”.

In the third installment of Addleshaw Goddard’s four-part webinar series on Hot Toppics in PFI/PPP Projects, HKA’s Gerry Brannigan joined Addleshaw Goddard’s Philip Withey, Managing Associate and Claire O’Shaughnessy, Director – Real Estate Team at Deloitte to deliver this well attended webinar. The session focused on the end of PFI/PPP project agreements and on the duties responsibilities and risks surrounding the handback process for all parties involved.

Gerry examines the potential risks and concludes that these risks point directly towards a recommendation for the parties to work collaboratively, agreeing timescales, responsibilities and scope to assess the assets. This will allow the parties to develop a contract expiry plan and for the authority to understand its obligations before and after the expiry.

Gerry and the HKA team has been involved in many disputes across different PFI/PPP projects with provision of opinions ranging from different types of damage caused by leaking pipework, non-compliant ventilation systems and specifications, poor workmanship and operational management of the facilities.  In the coming years, HKA considers that PFI expiry and handback is likely to be one of the key future areas of disputes in this market. 

The challenging times lie directly ahead for many of these contracts. The action is not only with all of the PFI and PPP stakeholders, but all parts of the supply chain must be willing and proactive in dealing with the risks as the projects come towards their expiry. So, rather than retrench to siloed positions, now more than ever is the time for all stakeholders across the supply chain to collaborate, share knowledge, and set a new standard in effective handback. 

Recorded: 21 January 2021

Please click here to view the full Addleshaw Goddard PFI/PPP webinar series, including ‘Changes of Law in the Context of Changes to Fire Safety Legislation’ and ‘Termination – the Ultimate Sanction’.

After the initial seismic shock of Covid-19 had everyone struggling to catch up with its potential impact, much of the discussion was about business interruption, insurance claims and force majeure. In this webinar, a panel of HKA forensic accounting and commercial damages partners discuss the types of disputes they are seeing, and expect to see arising now that the dust has settled somewhat and businesses are assessing the full impact on them and their measures of recourse.

In collaboration with GAR and Lexology, the panel discussion is moderated by Colin Johnson from the UK, alongside panellists David Bones (USA), Jonathan Humphrey (APAC) and David Saunders (UK). The team specialises in assisting clients to manage disputes, risk and uncertainty on major complex contracts, and has expertise in valuations, economic damages, project viability, investigations, bankruptcy and intellectual property across a wide range of industries and sectors worldwide.

Speakers

Colin Johnson, Partner, Europe

Colin has over 30 years of experience, including acting as a lender, equity investor, developer, and legal and financial adviser before becoming an expert witness. He has given oral evidence and acted as an expert in matters of litigation and arbitration, ranging from investment treaty claims to commercial, contractual and construction disputes. He has supported clients on projects up to a value of $6 billion and disputed sums up to $50 billion.

Colin uses his international experience in analysing, negotiating and managing major projects to consider full commercial impact (including viability and solvency issues),  and its effect on valuations. He has worked in Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia on behalf of national governments, large companies and entrepreneurs.

Colin specialises in evaluating value and damages in relation to large project companies whether in investment treaty claims, contractual disputes and investigations. He has provided expert services across a wide range of sectors including power, oil and gas, infrastructure, agriculture, construction, financial services, manufacturing, real estate, telecoms and the public sector. He is fluent in Spanish and speaks Portuguese, French and German to differing degrees.

David Bones, Partner, Americas
David is an economic damages expert with over 17 years of experience in commercial damages and construction matters. He has authored over 70 expert reports and provided expert testimony in disputes, including depositions, arbitrations, jury trials and mediations. David has had the opportunity to work on several matters over $1 billion and has provided testimony on matters above $200 million.

David is skilled in a wide range of services, including lost profits, lost wages, business valuations, construction disputes, fund/asset tracing, financial condition and solvency analyses for clients in Asia, North America and South America. He has consulted on behalf of Fortune 500 companies and others in various industries, including mining, gaming, energy, real estate development, homebuilding, shipbuilding, chemical production, manufacturing, software, healthcare (hospital and insurance), grocery, automotive, transportation, specialty finance (subprime mortgage and auto), non-profit, financial institutions and agriculture.

David is a certified valuation analyst and is experienced in managing large project teams, including leading the solvency team on one of the largest fraudulent conveyance cases in US history, with damages in excess of $6 billion.

Jonathan Humphrey, Partner, APAC
Jonathan is a chartered accountant with over 20 years of experience in forensic accounting. He has acted as an expert witness in multiple forums, including international arbitration under the ICC, UNCITRAL, LCIA, SIAC, DIAC and HKIAC rules, court litigation and mediation. He has given oral evidence in commercial and investment treaty cases with disputed values of up to $600 million. 

Jonathan began his career at one of the big four accounting firms where he worked in their forensic accounting group for eight years before working for expert services firms for 12 years. He has experience in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australasia, working in a myriad of sectors, including oil and gas, power and utilities, construction, financial services, IT and telecoms, media, natural resources, pharmaceutical and retail.

Jonathan’s expert commissions cover a range of issues including the quantification of lost profits, business valuations and the assessment of damages relating to class actions, professional negligence, insurance claims, business interruption and post-acquisition disputes. His forensic accounting expertise includes fraud, forensic, intellectual property and regulatory investigations.

David Saunders, Partner, Europe
David is a chartered accountant with over 30 years of experience in forensic accounting.  He has been appointed to act as an expert on numerous occasions and has also been appointed to prepare and consider business interruption claims. 

David has given oral testimony (including being involved in witness conferencing) in both litigation and arbitration and has appeared before the courts and tribunals across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America. He has been appointed under the AAA, ICC, LCIA, SCC and UNICITRAL rules and as a damages expert in bilateral investment treaty cases.

David specialises in valuations and quantification of damages. The sectors his cases have covered include oil and gas, commodity trading, construction, property, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, manufacturing, hotels, retail, entertainment and financial services. He also has significant forensic accounting, fraud and financial investigation experience as well as working on cases involving the restatement of accounts. He has undertaken fraud and regulatory investigations in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia and has provided expert evidence on funds tracing issues. He has also worked on due diligence assignments and pre-lending reviews.

This webinar focuses on insolvency in the construction industry supply chain. Understanding its causes and implementing mitigation measures can undoubtedly help minimise the impact. Within the backdrop of the intense COVID-19 climate, our experienced panel of commercial, financial and legal experts explore safeguards that can be implemented when putting construction contracts in place, as well as the practical steps to take should an insolvency event impact your construction project and your supply chain.

DISCUSSION POINTS

Legal Issues 

• Introduction to insolvency. 
• The practical impact of the new Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020. 
• Standard forms of contract – JCT & NEC provisions (impact of the new Act). 
• Security packages (performance bonds and parent company guarantees). 

Quantum Issues  

• Practical steps that parties can take to protect themselves. 
• Preparing for insolvency – how to spot the warning signs on a project. 
• Some simple “dos and dont’s” of insolvency. 

Financial Issues 

• Red flags – how to test when companies (contractors, subcontractors or employers) are in financial difficulty. 
• Warning signs that banks and investors look for. 
• What owners (or those putting out tenders) can do upfront to address potential issues.  

SPEAKERS

Sekai Nyambo – Associate Director/Chair, HKA
Sekai is a chartered quantity surveyor in HKA’s quantum team with 16 years’ commercial and contracts experience in the engineering and construction industries. Her portfolio includes major projects across a wide range of market sectors throughout the UK, Europe and South Africa.

Colin Johnson – Partner, HKA
Colin has over 25 years’ experience including acting as a lender, equity investor, developer, and legal and financial adviser. He has been appointed as an expert witness on more than 30 occasions for a variety of cases ranging up to US$50bn+ in claim value.

Paul Cacchioli – Director, HKA
Paul is a chartered quantity surveyor with more than 30 years’ construction industry experience. He has been appointed as a quantum expert on seven occasions for disputed projects including transport infrastructure and residential, mixed-use and healthcare buildings, with values of up to £250 million.

Elizabeth Vago – Partner, Spencer West
Elizabeth has over 20 years’ experience of a wide variety of large social infrastructure projects, renewable energy projects, local government outsourcing contracts, general commercial contracts and privacy and compliance in private practice and in industry.

Jonathan More – Partner, Spencer West
Jonathan has 20 years’ extensive experience as a qualified lawyer working on major construction and engineering projects, providing full project support from procurement through to contract close-out. 

As the pandemic persists across the world, its disruptive effect on people’s lives and on construction projects is still being felt and that looks likely to be the case for some time to come.

This webinar reviews the legal requirements for establishing a claim for disruption (including the manner in which courts and tribunals approach the assessment of such claims), as well as a critical consideration of the various methods of analysis to quantify disruption and to seek to demonstrate causation.  

The webinar also reviews some of the common errors made in the pursuit of disruption claims and offers practical tips and methods for preparing and pursuing disruption claims so as to avoid those errors.

SPEAKERS

Geoff Bewsey, Partner & Delay Expert, HKA

Geoff Bewsey is a civil engineer with over 40 years’ experience in the construction industry, working in design, contracting and consulting. He has been appointed as delay expert, regarding project planning and disruption matters, on more than 35 occasions. Geoff is a widely-experienced expert witness in the fields of disruption and delay. He applies sound planning principles to evaluate and report on issues of productivity and extension of time. Geoff has been cross-examined at arbitration in six hearings and has given concurrent evidence (hot-tubbing) during two of these disputes. He has also acted as expert assistant on numerous international disputes.

Geoff Bewsey has established a reputation as a “highly intelligent and intuitive” expert with vast experience in disruption claims and delay analysis.WWL Thought Leaders – Construction Experts 2020

James Morris, Partner, Mayer Brown

James Morris is a partner in the Construction & Engineering and International Arbitration practices of the London office of Mayer Brown. His practice includes a wide range of dispute resolution, advising employers, contractors, consultants and insurers in relation to all forms of construction related disputes and EU public procurement. He regularly advises on complicated technical disputes, including claims concerning defective design and workmanship, programming, delay, disruption and quantum, which arise out of the major forms of construction and engineering contracts. He is an experienced litigator who has represented clients in complex multi-party litigation in the High Court (Technology and Construction Court), mediations, adjudications and arbitrations (both domestic and international).

James has represented clients in a number of different jurisdictions in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.  James also has experience of dealing with complex insurance issues and regularly advises insurers on professional indemnity cases.

He is named a ‘Next Generation Partner’ by Legal 500 and ranked as “Up and Coming” by Chambers 2021.

“He provides sound advice and has an amazing work ethic.” “He is a thorough and pragmatic lawyer.” “His advice is immediate yet considered, articulate and sensible, due to his instinctive judgement.” – Chambers UK 2021

M&A activity has been hard hit by COVID-19, either deals have stopped, we’re seeing opportunism in the market, or ongoing transactions are coming to some form of post-COVID completion. Any market volatility tends to lead to disputes, although the nature of the disputes changes.

In this webinar, Jonathan Humphrey presents his experience with M&A disputes in the current economic climate and discusses the new shape of disputes and the challenges to assessing damages.

Video property of Legal Plus Asia.