Alex Ottaway
Alex is a Partner in the Sydney Commonwealth Government group. Alex has around 14 years’ experience as a qualified solicitor, specialising in construction and infrastructure projects, including project advice, contract-drafting and dispute resolution, which encompasses negotiation, mediation, adjudication, expert determination, arbitration and litigation.
He advises and acts for Commonwealth Government and other public and private-sector participants in diverse industries such as infrastructure (rail/roads/ports), industrial (chemical/polymer plants), resources (LNG/oil & gas), energy, advanced manufacturing and housing.
Alex is based in Sydney and regularly advises on projects in all Australian States and Territories. He also practised in London for around six years, advising on projects in the UK, continental Europe and the MENA region.
Experience
Alex’s experience includes advising:
- A major infrastructure contractor in the defence of an adjudication under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW) with a disputed sum of AUD c.13 million, obtaining an adjudicator’s determination that was very favourable for the client;
- A major developer on a successful call on more than AUD 10 million of bank guarantees, following a head contractor being placed into administration;
- A major infrastructure contractor on an expert determination conducted by an eminent retired judge, on an important point of contractual interpretation;
- A major UK head contractor and major geotechnical subcontractor on a GBP 65 million (AUD 118 million) insurance claim involving a new deep sea container port in the River Thames with substantial concrete failures, referred to a sole arbitrator (retired UK Supreme Court judge) seated in London;
- A state-owned oil company on a claim by an EPCM contractor worth EUR 2 million (AUD 3 million), in relation to the expansion of a polyethylene plant in Baku, Azerbaijan;
- A German EPC contractor (household name) on a dispute worth AUD 150 million, relating to an ammonium nitrate plant in Ain Sokhna, Egypt involving issues of delay, quality, liquidated damages, unconditional undertakings and IP rights, referred to mediation in London;
- A major geotechnical subcontractor on a design liability dispute worth GBP >3 million (AUD >5 million) involving a roads project in Coventry, England in which many of the piles installed by the subcontractor had failed, referred to adjudication;
- An international energy provider on a 540km long onshore LNG pipeline in Queensland involving substantial delay and complex and technical issues concerning defective pipeline welding, referred to a panel of eminent arbitrators seated in Brisbane;
- A major Australian supermarket on new supermarket projects in New South Wales and Victoria in respect of which the client attempted to call on unconditional undertakings, resulting in contested injunction proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales; and
- A tank storage company in relation to a new-build bitumen plant in Botany Bay, Sydney, involving an AUD 15 million variations claim which was referred to adjudication under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW).