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Karen Gidwani
BA (Hons)(Oxon), MSc, Solicitor
Partner
Contract experience
Karen is familiar with the principal forms of contract and subcontracts, including JCT, ICE, NEC, FIDIC, GC/Works, DOM/1 and IChemE. Karen has also had experience dealing with a variety of bespoke construction and engineering contracts, both domestic and international.
General experience
Karen has specialised in construction law since qualification and has advised on both dispute resolution and dispute avoidance as well as procurement matters for a broad range of domestic and international clients.
She advises and represents clients in mediation, litigation, arbitration (domestic and international) and adjudication and also advises on dispute avoidance during the course of projects. Typically she deals with issues concerning determination and repudiation, contract formation and interpretation, loss and expense, extensions of time, international arbitration jurisdiction, unjust enrichment and the nature of and rights arising out of bonds and guarantees.
Karen also advises clients on procurement, undertakes tender reviews, and drafts and negotiates contract documentation and amendments to contract documentation, to suit specific client needs.
Career
Karen read law at Jesus College, Oxford and then completed her LPC at the Oxford Institute of Legal Practice. Karen trained at Sharpe Pritchard, qualifying in 1999, before joining the construction department at Titmuss Sainer Dechert. She joined Fenwick Elliott in November 2000, becoming an associate in February 2002 and a partner in April 2006.
Other activities
Karen completed her MSc in Construction Law and Arbitration at King’s College London in December 2003, during which she produced a dissertation exploring the questions behind restitutionary quantum meruit in construction law. Karen is a co-editor of the Construction Industry Law Letter (CILL) and was a co-contributor to a chapter on the law of Tort in the Construction Law Handbook. She has also contributed articles to various construction law journals.
Memberships
Karen is a member of the King’s College Construction Law Association, the Society of Construction Law, the Adjudication Society, TeCSA and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.