Dispute Board Chambers set up to promote the use of dispute boards for use in construction projects around the world.
DB Chambers, a virtual organisation with an office in Lugano, Switzerland, has been launched by four leading dispute resolution professionals to promote best practice dispute avoidance and dispute boards for international construction and engineering projects.
Operating under Swiss law as a non-profit association, DB Chambers has four founder members including the president Nicholas Gould, a partner in the law firm Fenwick Elliott LLP, along with Peter Chapman, Gwyn Owen and James Perry, all past presidents of the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the avoidance and resolution of disputes worldwide using the unique and well-proven dispute board method. The four are joined by 13 further highly experienced international adjudicators.
DB Chambers members are leading conflict avoidance and dispute resolution specialists with an international reputation for excellence in their field and regular appointments to dispute boards. The DB Chambers website allows anyone to access members’ CVs and make direct contact regarding availability and to check for conflicts. DB Chambers’ members are regularly appointed on dispute boards throughout the world for services on construction and infrastructure projects.
Nicholas Gould, chair and one of the founding members of DB Chambers, said: “The difficulty for owners and contractors in selecting dispute boards members is finding truly capable people that have strong practical experience over many years with dispute boards. Existing lists do not differentiate between the truly experienced and those with very little actual experience. The members of DB Chambers came together based on peer selection to provide governments and industry with a single short list of individuals that are capable of handling any project.”
Co-founder member Jim Perry said: “When parties to complex construction projects adopt the dispute board approach to help manage their relations, they are banking that the process will reduce delays and claims and foster better collaboration. They are placing an enormous amount of trust in the persons they appoint, but the results will only be as good as the dispute members’ abilities.
“DB Chambers has been created to provide users with a secure source of tested dispute board practitioners who are dedicated to the dispute board process and have the rare combination of industry and legals skills and the experience needed not only to implement effective informal assistance but also to take on the most complicated formal referrals.”
DB Chambers does not nominate or appoint members to dispute boards, but the public can approach any of the members directly and for appointing purposes. Full details, including biographies and contact details, are in the members section of the DB Chambers website, which is searchable by various categories.