Howes Percival appoints first head of construction to meet growing demand
Howes Percival has recruited partner Piet van Gelder as the firm’s first ever head of construction, to meet the growing demand for construction law services.
Piet’s appointment follows a period of sustained growth for Howes Percival’s wider real estate and development team, which is nationally recognised and has advised on some of the largest development projects both regionally and beyond.
Piet is a specialist construction and engineering lawyer who advises clients in the construction, engineering and renewable energy sectors and in respect of compliance with the new regime under the Building Safety Act. Piet has experience over the whole lifecycle of projects from compliance with building regulations, procurement and resolving commercial issues and project accounts.
Piet has been involved with many engineering projects outside the renewables sector including nuclear waste plants, process engineering plants, sequence batch reactors and waste to energy plants.
He has been involved in substantial disputes in the Technology & Construction Court and in international & domestic arbitration, as well as an experienced practitioner in adjudication and a keen proponent of mediation.
Lucy Lord, partner and head of property at Howes Percival, commented, “We are delighted to welcome Piet to Howes Percival to head up and grow our construction offering. Piet has a wealth of experience and a strong client following. He is a great recruit for us and brings the calibre and credibility we need to align with the strength of our development team and take our proposition to the next level. The local and national market in development terms remains very strong and we are seeing our development instructions increase quarter on quarter. As a result, we need to expand our construction offering which is a critical specialism for our development clients.”
