Edmund Crawley
Call: 2023
Clerk Details
Practice Summary
Edmund specialises in construction, engineering, and professional negligence disputes. He acts as both sole and junior counsel, and has experience across litigation, adjudication and arbitration in a range of high-value and technically complex domestic and international disputes.
He regularly acts in disputes arising from standard form contracts, including JCT, NEC and FIDIC, and contributes to the JCT Chapter in Keating on Construction Contracts. He accepts instructions to advise, draft, and provide advocacy at all stages of litigation, adjudication, arbitration and other forms of dispute resolution.
Edmund’s recent experience as junior counsel includes:
- Acting as junior counsel for the Arconic Defendants in a £360m claim arising out of the Grenfell Tower fire, in a team led by David Thomas KC, Laura John KC, and Charlie Thompson.
- Acting as junior counsel to Tom Owen KC in a £100m dispute arising out of the construction of a bio-medical facility on behalf of the Employer against an insolvent contractor.
- Acting as junior counsel to Tom Owen KC on a £140m dispute under an NEC3 contract concerning the largest ever road infrastructure project in Northern Ireland.
- Acting as junior counsel to Tom Coulson in a £2.7m claim concerning defective cladding products.
- Acting as junior counsel to Harry Smith on a c.£4.5 million adjudication concerning the value and validity of a final assessment following termination of an NEC4 Contract.
Edmund’s recent experience as sole counsel includes:
- Regularly acting in adjudications, for both referring and responding parties, covering payment, true valuation and professional negligence disputes.
- Acting in multiple adjudication enforcement proceedings, for both the claiming and responding parties.
- Acting for an engineer in a damages claim against a specialist rainwater-recycling system sub-contractor.
- Acting for a structural engineer in a claim brought against it by a home-owner for allegedly negligent design work.
Before coming to the Bar, Edmund spent a year working as a Judicial Assistant for Lord Justice Phillips and the Lady Chief Justice Carr in the Court of Appeal.
Edmund also spent several months working for Scotia Group, an international thinktank formed to provide proposals and strategies for parties at COP26. Edmund was a Working Group Leader for a team which developed a strategy for Japan’s Minister of Economy.
Practice Areas
Construction & Engineering
Drafted a Particulars of Claim on behalf of a developer in relation to an alleged breach of contract by the architect in relation to the design of an elevated car park deck.
Drafted a Defence and Counterclaim on behalf of a contractor, in relation to a dispute with its sub-contractor, in circumstances where the latter had abandoned the works and claimed for payment of allegedly overdue invoices.
Drafted submissions on behalf of a contractor in an Expert Determination concerning the release of retention monies.
Drafted the Reply on behalf of a contractor in relation to a claim for an unpaid invoice from its Employer, in circumstances where the parties disagreed as to the existence of the contract.
Advised an architect’s insurer on its liability under the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 in a claim.
Advised an architect on the point of time at which a cause of action accrued under the Defective Premises Act 1974.
Drafted a Witness Statement on behalf of a solicitor in opposition to an application for specific performance and/or pre-action disclosure.
Advised a developer on its prospects of successfully terminating a contractor’s employment in relation the construction of a desalination plant in the Middle East.
Advised the Secretary of State for Transport in relation to its potential liability under a Concession Agreement.
Advised a developer in relation to a potential claim against it by its contractor for unlawful termination of the contract.
Advised and drafted a Particulars of Claim on behalf of a plumbing contractor in a claim against a hospitality business for unpaid invoices.
Professional Negligence
- Drafted a Defence on behalf of an architect in a claim for alleged defective designs resulting in water ingress at a school.
- Drafted a Particulars of Claim on behalf of a homeowner against its architect and contractor in relation to a defectively designed and installed roof on a private residence.
- Drafted a Defence on behalf of a structural engineer in relation to allegedly defective designs for an extension to a private residence.
- Drafted a Defence on behalf of a building contractor in relation to a claim brought against it by a home owner, claiming multiple defects in the design and construction of a property.
Energy & Natural Resources
Drafted the Defence and Counterclaim on behalf of a contractor, in response to a claim for delay and disruption costs by a sub-contractor, in relation to the installation of high voltage cables and related civil engineering work at a substation for an off-shore wind farm in Scotland.
Planning
Drafted a letter of claim on behalf of a landlord in relation to the alleged breach of an Underlease due to an unauthorised change of a property’s use.
Offshore Construction & Marine Engineering
Advised a shipbuilder on the correct interpretation of bespoke clauses within a FIDIC contract in relation to the construction of topside elements of an offshore wind farm.
Litigation
Drafted a Skeleton Argument on behalf of a civil engineering contractor for an adjudication enforcement.
Drafted the Skeleton Argument, Order, Claim Form, and Application Notice for an interim injunction on behalf of an estate management company against a contractor threatening to remove its materials from the site.
Drafted a Skeleton Argument on behalf of a contractor in a Part 8 Claim concerning the possibility of recovering an alleged overpayment made on an interim payment.
Drafted a Skeleton Argument on behalf of a contractor for an adjudication enforcement in the context of allegations made by the defendant developer that the adjudicator acted in breach of the principles of natural justice.
Drafted a Skeleton Argument on behalf of a developer for an adjudication enforcement in the context of jurisdictional challenges by the contractor.
Arbitration
Drafted a section of a Rejoinder under the ADCCAC Rules on behalf of a developer on an infrastructure project in Abu Dhabi.
Drafted a Notice of Arbitration under the CIMAR rules on behalf of a developer in relation to the design and construction of residential and commercial properties in Wales.
Adjudication
- Acted as junior counsel on a c.£4.5 million adjudication concerning the value and validity of a final assessment following termination of an NEC4 Contract.
- Drafted a Notice and Referral on behalf of a building contractor in relation to a final account dispute with its Employer.
- Drafted a Response, Rejoinder and Rebutter as junior counsel in relation to a multi-million pound infrastructure project.
- Drafted a Rejoinder on behalf of a contractor in relation to a dispute concerning the applicable payment provisions following the termination of the contract.
Advocacy
- Edmund has appeared multiple times in the County Court as sole counsel, and has experience of cross-examining witnesses.
- Edmund has appeared and spoken on behalf of clients at Adjudication hearings.
Other Information
Education & Career
Professional Career
Tenant, Keating Chambers – 2024.
Pupil, Keating Chambers – 2023–2024.
Called to the Bar, Lincoln’s Inn – 2023.
Judicial Assistant to Lord Justice Phillips and Lady Chief Justice Carr – 2022–2023.
Working Group Leader, Mediation Support Unit, Scotia Group – 2021.
Education
- Bar Professional Training Course, BPP (Distinction) – 2021–2022.
- Climate Emergency Programme, University of Oxford/Said Business School – 2022.
- Post-Graduate Diploma in Law, BPP (Distinction) – 2020–2021.
- BA Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion, University of Cambridge (First-Class) – 2017–2020.
Privacy Policies
Additional information
Edmund enjoys long distance hiking, and has walked in numerous locations throughout Europe and the Middle East. He is also an enthusiastic chef, and collects cookbooks.
Appointments & Awards
Cassel Scholarship, Lincoln’s Inn – 2021
Career Commitment Scholarship, BPP – 2021
Mary Ann Leighton Scholarship, University of Cambridge – 2020
Burney Prize, University of Cambridge – 2020
JY Gibson Prize, University of Cambridge – 2020
Emily Davies Scholarship, University of Cambridge – 2019
JY Gibson Prize, University of Cambridge – 2019