Construction Claims & Contract Management Consultant.
MSc Civil Engineering · LLM Construction Law & Arbitration.
I started my career as a hydraulic engineer, preparing designs and tender documents for consulting companies and employers on infrastructure projects across Serbia and the region. In 2011, I joined a German contractor on a World Bank-financed project, first in Afghanistan, and then a few months later in Azerbaijan — and that is where everything changed. Managing a complex ENAA contract in difficult conditions, I quickly learned that the outcome of a project is often decided not on the construction site, but in the contractual record.
Witnessing firsthand how timely-submitted notices, insufficiently documented variations, and reactive claims strategies could erode years of hard work on site, I became obsessed with the other side of the contract. I started building claims from the ground up — contemporary records, delay analysis, entitlement strategies — always thinking several steps ahead: how will a DAB member or arbitrator read this in two years?
That question eventually led me to pursue an LLM in Construction Law and Arbitration at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen — not as a career change, but as a formal grounding for what I had already been practising on live projects across four countries.
Along the way, I gained significant contractual, engineering, and cultural experience on infrastructure projects in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Serbia. I also built a strong network of highly experienced engineers across structural, mechanical, electrical, road, and railway disciplines, together with delay analysis and quantum experts. When a matter requires wider specialist input, I can bring together the right people and coordinate their work around a clear contractual strategy.
Before joining contractors, I spent years preparing tender documents and designs as an engineer. I understand how employers and engineers think — which makes me unusually effective at anticipating their position and structuring arguments that hold up under scrutiny. As one client put it: hiring me is like setting a thief to catch a thief.
I have been in the mud, in -23°C winters in Azerbaijan and +40°C summers in Bangladesh. I understand the operational reality contractors face on the ground. Combined with formal construction law training, this means I can translate site events into legally coherent claims — without losing the human story behind them.
Having worked across Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Serbia, I have learned that contract disputes are never purely legal. Cultural attitudes to entitlement, face-saving, negotiation and authority shape every interaction. Understanding this — a subject I explored in depth in my LLM dissertation — is often the difference between resolution and escalation.
As an independent consultant, I work with a small number of clients at any given time. No large firm overhead, no junior associates learning on your project. You get direct, senior-level attention — from contract award through to Statement at Completion or, if necessary, dispute resolution.
"Know the risk before you sign. Protect the claim along the line."
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