Celia Lewis

Full Profile

Celia acts for a range of construction professionals, including major contractors and global consultants, on construction claims and related insurance disputes. She works on high value, complex claims by way of litigation, arbitration and adjudication and is experienced with alternative dispute resolution. Celia enjoys working alongside clients to resolve disputes.

Celia also advises on complex coverage issues in respect of construction all risks, professional indemnity and public liability policies.

Experience

Some of Celia’s recent work:

• Success on behalf of Mace in the Court of Appeal on all issues in the case of Sky UK Limited and Mace Limited v Riverstone Managing Agency Limited & Ors [2024] EWCA Civ 1567. This followed a five-week trial in 2023 in which Mace and Sky were successful on liability. The £100million plus claims concerned water damage to the two-acre roof of Sky’s global headquarters in London. The building was constructed by Mace and insured under a construction all risks policy. Insurers denied cover and Sky and Mace subsequently brought claims for declarations and indemnities for remediation of all the damage.
• Blackpool Borough Council v Volkerfitzpatrick Limited and ors [2020] EWHC 1523 (TCC). Successfully obtained judgment for our client, Caunton Engineering Ltd – a specialist steelworks contractor. The case concerned the Starr Gate Tram Depot in Blackpool. Blackpool Borough Council (“BBC”) made wide-ranging claims for c.£9million at trial. Its largest claim concerned corrosion of the secondary steel structure of the building, for which our client was responsible. BBC claimed that the steel would not achieve its intended design life. We defeated its claim entirely.
• Successfully made a claim against a consulting engineer for defective design services it provided on a large residential development in London.
• Provided advice to insurers on alleged defective groundworks at a site in Australia involving the world’s leading geotechnical specialist contractor. The case involved very complex coverage issues concerning professional indemnity and public liability policies.
• Defending a wide range of claims, in the tens of millions, including but not limited to fire issues, against our Tier 1 contractor client in relation to student accommodation. The case requires the management of a significant number of technical experts with which Celia is highly experienced.
• Acting on an arbitration case involving the re-building of a community asset suffering from groundwork issues.