Leading Construction Contract Law, Claims, FIDIC and NEC3/4 Expert
Chris Bennett completed his LLB at the University of Natal in 1998 and was admitted as an attorney in 2002. He obtained a Masters in Construction Law and Dispute Resolution (MSc) from Kings College, London in 2015. His first notable experience was with Masons in London, a leading UK firm, specialising in construction and engineering law. He has worked as a Paralegal on several international cases involving claims running into multi-million dollars, such as rebuilding of an international airport and the construction of an offshore oil platform.
Chris gained further experience at Routledge-Modise Inc, Moodie & Robertson Attorneys, MDA Consulting, was a founding partner of MDA Attorneys Inc and he started his own law firm, Bennett Attorneys Inc in 2018. He recently took up a position at VRM Inc and all of this experience has given him a broad base on which to draw upon. His in-depth knowledge of the construction industry is evident, and he has extensive experience on all aspects of construction and engineering projects locally and across Africa and the Middle East, from procurement and drafting of contracts to contract management and administration as well as the avoidance and resolution of claims and disputes.
Chris has acted for a wide range of clients, across a broad spectrum of industries, advising on complex, large-scale commercial and infrastructure projects both locally and internationally in railways, ports, water infrastructure, dam building, power generation, open-cast and underground mining, oil and gas, roads and earthworks and building industries; and he is excited about using his experiences and industry war stories to add to the overall training experience.He has always had a particular interest in the growing awareness in the construction industry of the need to adopt dispute avoidance techniques which can radically reduce the risk of disputes occurring.