Thought Leaders
Duncan W Glaholt
Thought Leader
Q&A
WWL says
Duncan Glaholt is “very experienced in construction arbitrations” according to impressed peers.Questions & Answers
What are the main challenges currently facing those looking to develop infrastructure projects in Canada?
One: tight margins, too many players chasing too few projects; and, two, fragile JVs with inherent legal and commercial culture fracture lines.
What are the most common sources of construction disputes and how do you think clients can minimise the risks of them occurring?
Big losses make bad contracts. This is a problem inherent in what in my view in the relational as opposed to transactional nature of all infrastructure projects. It is a problem the common law is only now coming to recognise.
To what extent will covid-19 inform parties’ behaviour when entering into construction and engineering contracts in the future?
The industry adapts well to shocks like this and has done so once again in this case. There will still be isolated cases of opportunism, but all high-value repeat interactors seem to have sorted themselves out.
What impact do you think third-party funding will have on construction disputes in the coming years?
In a word: significant. Speculating in litigation futures in the global infrastructure casino is the game and everyone is going to want to play. It will become the norm, not the exception.
It has been noted that mediation is increasingly being used to resolve construction disputes. Why do you think it is becoming more popular as a form of dispute resolution?
Confidentiality, creativity, certainty . . . three things that commercial litigation is unable to provide at present.
What is the importance of harnessing the benefits of e-discovery in the construction space?
Modern infrastructure litigation/arbitration is unthinkable without it.
What impact will technological innovation have on the construction industry over the next five to ten years?
In a word: profound. AI will revolutionise case preparation and decision. Bayesian degrees of belief will soon substitute for CPM delay analysis for example. AI will create and test legal arguments. We are approaching a technological event horizon after which current information gathering and data processing methodologies will look positively medieval.
What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?
The same advice I got to improve my golf game: head down, slow down, keep your eye on the ball.
Global Leader
Professional Biography
WWL says
Duncan Glaholt is "very experienced in construction arbitrations" according to impressed peers.
Biography
Duncan W Glaholt, CArb, is the founder and a partner of the leading and nationally recognised construction law firm, Glaholt Bowles LLP. He has been consistently named one of the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada in the field of construction law. Mr Glaholt is certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a specialist in construction law. He is a fellow of both the American and Canadian Colleges of construction lawyers and founding fellow of the International Academy of Construction Lawyers.
Mr Glaholt is author and co-author of several standard reference books on construction law and alternative dispute resolution topics, including the Halsbury’s Laws of Canada Construction and Alternative Dispute Resolution titles (LexisNexis, 2008 and 2009; reissues 2017 and 2018), The Law of ADR in Canada: An Introductory Guide (second edition, LexisNexis, 2018), Construction Builders’ and Mechanics Liens in Canada (seventh edition, Carswell, 2005), Conduct of a Lien Action 2018 (Carswell, 2017) and The 2018 Annotated Ontario Construction Lien Act (Carswell, 2017). He is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.
Mr Glaholt is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has mediated and arbitrated a wide range of complex, multiparty construction industry disputes with particular focus on mining, energy and infrastructure, co-generation, nuclear power, power distribution systems and conventional infrastructure and environmental projects.
Mr Glaholt has worked to bring adjudication rules and collaborative settlement practices into the Canadian legal mainstream.
Professional Biography
WWL says
Duncan Glaholt is a "go-to construction guy" with "a strong practice in construction mediation and arbitration".
Biography
Duncan W Glaholt, CArb, is the founder and a partner of the leading and nationally recognised construction law firm, Glaholt Bowles LLP. He has been consistently named one of the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada in the field of construction law. Mr Glaholt is certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a specialist in construction law. He is a fellow of both the American and Canadian Colleges of construction lawyers and founding fellow of the International Academy of Construction Lawyers.
Mr Glaholt is author and co-author of several standard reference books on construction law and alternative dispute resolution topics, including the Halsbury’s Laws of Canada Construction and Alternative Dispute Resolution titles (LexisNexis, 2008 and 2009; reissues 2017 and 2018), The Law of ADR in Canada: An Introductory Guide (second edition, LexisNexis, 2018), Construction Builders’ and Mechanics Liens in Canada (seventh edition, Carswell, 2005), Conduct of a Lien Action 2018 (Carswell, 2017) and The 2018 Annotated Ontario Construction Lien Act (Carswell, 2017). He is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.
Mr Glaholt is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has mediated and arbitrated a wide range of complex, multiparty construction industry disputes with particular focus on mining, energy and infrastructure, co-generation, nuclear power, power distribution systems and conventional infrastructure and environmental projects.
Mr Glaholt has worked to bring adjudication rules and collaborative settlement practices into the Canadian legal mainstream.
National Leader
Professional Biography
WWL says
Duncan Glaholt is a distinguished arbitration specialist whose expertise lies in construction disputes, with a focus on the mining, energy and infrastructure sectors.
Biography
Duncan W Glaholt, CArb, is the founder and a partner of the leading and nationally recognised construction law firm of Glaholt Bowles LLP, consistently peer rated as one of Canada’s most highly recommended mid-sized construction law practices. He is the recipient of the 2014 OBA Award of Excellence in Construction Law and the 2018 TCA Donald Griffin Jr Award, and has been named one of Canada’s leading lawyers in the construction law category in the Lexpert/American Lawyer‘s “leading 500 lawyers in Canada” every year that category appeared in publication. Mr Glaholt maintains Martindale-Hubble’s highest possible AV rating and is certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a specialist in construction law.
Mr Glaholt is a chartered arbitrator and mediator. He is a founding fellow and past president of the Canadian College of Construction Lawyers, a fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers, and a founding fellow of the International Academy of Construction Lawyers and the North American branch of the Society of Construction Law. He is author and co-author of standard reference books on lien legislation, construction law, and alternative dispute resolution, such as The Law of ADR in Canada: An Introductory Guide, second edition (Markham, LexisNexis, 2018) and Halsbury's Laws of Canada - Alternative Dispute Resolution (Markham, LexisNexis, 2009, Reissue 2014, Reissue 2018), as well as an adjunct professor at the faculty of law at the University of Toronto.
As one of Canada’s foremost mediators and arbitrators of complex construction disputes, with a specialty in complex multi-party infrastructure disputes, Mr Glaholt has been a member of arbitration panels in energy industry, wind power, cogeneration, nuclear power, nuclear new build and retrofit, solar power and related BOP and distribution systems as well as conventional infrastructure, environmental and housing development projects, both under institutional (ICC, JAMS, UNCITRAL) and ad hoc rules. In addition, he has had court appointments as a claims officer in major infrastructure insolvencies and as a referee of complex construction disputes.
Professional Biography
WWL says
Duncan Glaholt is "the gold standard" when it comes to resolving construction disputes, remark impressed sources, who consider him “a true leader” in the market.
Biography
Duncan W Glaholt, CArb, is the founder and a partner of the leading and nationally recognised construction law firm, Glaholt Bowles LLP. He has been consistently named one of the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada in the field of construction law. Mr Glaholt is certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a specialist in construction law. He is a fellow of both the American and Canadian Colleges of construction lawyers and founding fellow of the International Academy of Construction Lawyers.
Mr Glaholt is author and co-author of several standard reference books on construction law and alternative dispute resolution topics, including the Halsbury’s Laws of Canada Construction and Alternative Dispute Resolution titles (LexisNexis, 2008 and 2009; reissues 2017 and 2018), The Law of ADR in Canada: An Introductory Guide (second edition, LexisNexis, 2018), Construction Builders’ and Mechanics Liens in Canada (seventh edition, Carswell, 2005), Conduct of a Lien Action 2018 (Carswell, 2017) and The 2018 Annotated Ontario Construction Lien Act (Carswell, 2017). He is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.
Mr Glaholt is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has mediated and arbitrated a wide range of complex, multiparty construction industry disputes with particular focus on mining, energy and infrastructure, co-generation, nuclear power, power distribution systems and conventional infrastructure and environmental projects.
Mr Glaholt has worked to bring adjudication rules and collaborative settlement practices into the Canadian legal mainstream.
Professional Biography
WWL says
Duncan Glaholt is well respected for his mediation work and is particularly experienced in resolving multiparty infrastructure disputes.
Biography
Duncan W Glaholt, CArb, is the founder and a partner of the leading and nationally recognised construction law firm, Glaholt Bowles LLP. He has been consistently named in the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada guide, in the field of construction law. Mr Glaholt is certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a specialist in construction law. He is a fellow of both the American and Canadian Colleges of Construction Lawyers, and a founding fellow of the International Academy of Construction Lawyers.
Mr Glaholt is author and co-author of several standard reference books on construction law and alternative dispute resolution topics, including the Halsbury's Laws of Canada Construction and Alternative Dispute Resolution titles (LexisNexis, reissues 2017 and 2018), The Law of ADR in Canada: An Introductory Guide (LexisNexis, second edition 2018), Construction Builders' and Mechanics Liens in Canada (seventh edition, Carswell, 2005), Conduct of Lien, Trust and Adjudication Proceedings 2019 (Carswell, 2019) and The 2019 Annotated Construction Act (Carswell, 2019). He is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.
Mr Glaholt is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has mediated and arbitrated a wide range of complex, multiparty construction industry disputes with particular focus on mining, energy and infrastructure, co-generation, nuclear power, power distribution systems and conventional infrastructure and environmental projects.
Mr Glaholt is the recipient of the 2014 OBA Award of Excellence in Construction Law and the 2018 Toronto Construction Association Donald Griffin Jr Award for lifetime contribution to the industry.
Mr Glaholt has worked to bring adjudication rules and collaborative settlement practices into the Canadian legal mainstream.
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