On 28 February 2018, I co-launched the Winfield Rock Report with my co-author, Sarah Rock of Gowling WLG. This is the culmination of 6 months’ research, including 44 interviewees with industry leaders and a survey with 158 respondents.
How did this Report come about? Over several glasses of wine last summer, Sarah and I discussed the industry perception that lawyers don’t understand BIM, and the potential legal and contractual ramifications of this. We had both encountered various contracts which simply contained variations of the magic clause, “You Will Achieve Level 2 BIM” with very little other detail. So we decided to do something about it, and the Winfield Rock Report was born. The aim of the report is to fill the existing important gap for a ‘state of the nation’ review of the legal community’s knowledge and understand of BIM, as well as a digestible review of the legal and contractual issues of BIM as a reference guide for lawyers new to BIM.
“The client will often not have an EIR even or any idea beyond …..we want BIM`” – Winfield Rock Report interviewee
The report considers the position on levels, standards, standard form contracts, BIM specific documents and the legal community generally. It was interesting to note that, when considering the issue of levels of BIM, each of the 44 interviewees provided different definitions of “BIM” and “Level 2”.
“We’ve had quite a few interactions with the legal world but they just didn’t seem to grasp how it works in practice” – Winfield Rock Report interviewee
The research results indicated there to be a disconnect between the legal community and BIM, with accounts from some interviewees of lawyers regarding BIM as a purely technical matter, or simply “fancy CAD”. One BIM-experienced lawyer interviewed, in considering the legal community’s apparent lack of engagement with BIM, mused that it was all too easy to see BIM as “CAD on steroids”, eventhough it was obviously much more than CAD and indeed an entirely different thing. There was however sympathy expressed for the legal community that may be seeking to get up to speed with BIM. One legal interviewee noted that they’d found it quite difficult to find digestible, clear commentary and guidance on BIM in a form that would be useful and understandable to a lawyer. When we wrote the Winfield Rock Report, there was no readily available ‘BIM-For-Lawyers’, either in the form of training or guidance. If the legal community do need to increase their awareness and expertise in this area, what are they to do? The Winfield Rock Report makes two recommendations to move this issue forward.
The Winfield Rock Report can be downloaded for free at: http://www.ukbimalliance.org/resources/request-a-copy-of-the-winfield-rock-report
About the Author: May is an experienced construction solicitor, and BIM, legal and contractual expert and is a regular speaker and author of articles on legal issues of BIM, digitisation and innovation in construction. May authored the award winning Society of Construction Law paper, ‘Building Information Modelling: The Legal Frontier – Overcoming Legal and Contractual Obstacles’.
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