Member Article

Behind the Business with Paterson Tighe Morton LLP

Jamie Paterson is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor & Construction Law Specialist at Paterson Tighe Morton LLP, a partnership of construction and law professionals dedicated to the effective resolution, management and avoidance of disputes. He takes Bdaily behind the business.

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

The foremost concern for a lot of firms is worrying that ‘going legal’ will damage a client relationship. Our biggest challenge has been convincing them that this isn’t necessarily the case. It’s a valid concern but we always ask very early on “would you like to work for this client again?” as approaches can be altered depending on the answer. But we’ve found that, in most cases, main contractors fully expect some of their supply chain to come back at them if bills aren’t paid or are disputed. If the subcontractor can provide a good price then the main contractor will use them again.

We represented a subcontractor recently in adjudication, his client settled before the referral and then sent an invitation to tender for another project the same week. It is a problem that we will only overcome in time as we continue to demonstrate that through taking the correct approach, client relationships needn’t be ruined by taking such action.

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

Paterson Tighe Morton are a growing team but we like to think that we are very good at what we do, to such an extent that we are not afraid to take on the “big boys” of the industry as although we are at a disadvantage in terms of organisational size and resources we know that pound for pound we are capable of matching the best in the industry. As a result of this approach I would say there are two big achievements in the last 12 months.

Firstly is picking up and making a success of adjudication for a client after they had been advised by the largest claims consultant in the UK that they were wasting their time. We met with the client, put together a strategy and won the adjudicators decision. Secondly was going toe to toe with the largest contractor in the UK, 3 times in 3 months and being successful each and every time for our client who turns over £2m. The bigger they are the harder they fall and our mantra as an organisation is #eventheodds.

What is your biggest focus for the coming year?

Our biggest focus is to just build on what we are already doing, we have had a significant amount of success in the North East and are starting to pick up work in London on exactly the same no win – no fee basis. The other thing we are looking to build upon is retained services arrangements, we have a number of junior quantity surveyors and we have found that having them working within an organisation one day per week (with our support) can often help to nip these disputes in the bud before they even get started meaning that the cash flow implications of actually having to go to adjudication once a relationship has broken down are mitigated and often avoided all together.

If you had to choose one top piece of advice for someone just starting out in business, or is currently operating within your industry sector, what would it be?

Find a niche and a unique selling point. We are chartered surveyors who specialise in claims so we’re not that different to others, right? You would be correct except that our ‘No Win No Fee’ approach is not currently offered by any of our competitors, large or small. So where it might have been difficult for us to prise clients away from more established firms, our USP has turned people’s heads.

Can you share with us your view of the current landscape of business, in your region or generally, and where your organisation sits within it?

Working in the construction industry in a recession is a difficult market, finance is difficult to come by, investment in spec development is scarce and public funding is a fraction of what it was in the boom years pre 2007. This has seen a lot of organisations go to the wall, however, very noticeably the ones who have survived and often prospered are the ones who innovate and change direction rather than standing still using the same business model as they did when times were good. The industry is starting to very slowly pick up as more finance is becoming available to kick start shelved developments, but margins are still very tight as organisations are still keen to secure the work in a competitive market. As a result there are a lot of disputes and issues over payment throughout the supply chain, consequently with our no win no fee offer for dispute resolution and debt recovery services we have been kept us very busy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .