IStructE Core Objective 10: Commercial and Legal

This is actually an amalgamation of THREE  former core objectives from the old IStructE system (which was replaced in 2023), now repackaged into a single core objective:

• 3.2 Law;
• 3.5 Commercial Awareness; and,
• 3.5 Contract Documents

Hopefully this gives you a clearer idea of what this covers. Noting that you only need a minimum Knowledge level of this objective, you can usually satisfy these competancies fairly early in your working career. Let's briefly breakdown by each above former objective:

Law / Legal

There are a number of different areas of construction law you could mention, and some of these overlap with other core objectives, such as health and safety and contract documentation, but there's no harm in repeating yourself.

You can describe these experiences (direct or indirect) in the final report form. Relevant experiences to mention include the following:

• Presentations of training courses, whether internal or external
• Legal disputes (even if you weren't involved, you may have gained an appreciation from discussions with colleagues, coworkers or other team members)
• Expert witness experience
• Involve in arbitration for settling disputes between parties.

Commercial Awareness

As a chartered engineer, it is very important that you have an appreciation for commercial issues relating to your work. This is especially in relation to costs and cost control. There are a few different ways you may do or have done this already:

• Fee proposals or bid documents
  If you've done these, you may have a good idea of project resourcing costs, or structural engineering fees in relation to the total construction cost, broken down by the project stages.
  
  
• Nominated PM for a project(s)
  If you are the nominated PM on a project, you may need to closely monitor the project costs and resourcing so you don't overrun, and even and request variations for work outside your original scope
  
  
• Input to Quantity Surveyors
  You may have produced alternative design options and provided these as input to a quantity surveyor or directly into a bill of quantities so that their costs could be easily assessed
  
  
• Value engineering or "cost-down" exercises
  Similar to above, you may have been asked to explore a design alternative to mitigate costs for a particular item e.g. post-tensioned flat slabs instead of regular flat slabs

Contracts

This is a difficult one to demonstrate as this responsibility might be completely separate from your normal day-to-day duties. However the wording of the revised objective and IStructE guidance doesn't appear to require a considerable amount of experience with this, just some knowledge and appreciation of this topic (for example, attending a training course on this subject).

You could review all the projects you have worked on and in your report, list what form of contract they each used, and any implications those contracts may have had. The more variety, the better! For example, some of them may have used:

• Your companies standard form of agreement
• ACE agreement
• JCT contract (where architect is the lead consultant)
• FIDIC and NEC contracts
• Public sector frameworks
• Design and Build contracts

If you have been involved in making a contract or reviewing one, or been involved in meetings where contracts and contract negotiation matters have been discussed, these would be useful to cover in your report forms. You could mention some of the key considerations, such as liability, duty of care, dicennial liability, collateral warranties, force majeure, and much more.

What to Write in Your Report Form

As usual, not all of these items below may be relevant to your experience. But try to include as many as possible in your report form.

• List all relevant training courses, seminars and talks you have attended
• Give any examples of commercial influences from external sources such as current affairs or taxation
• Describe an example of how your design has been influenced by cost
• Give an example of where you have been involved in project costing
• Where you have procured work from others, describe how you considered cost in that work
• Describe how you monitor financial the performance of your projects, maybe also issuing invoices and managing / updating to include variations.
• Describe some of the procurement routes you have followed / are following on your projects, e.g. traditional procurement, two-stage tender, design & build, etc.

What to Incude in Your Portfolio

• Fee proposals or bids you have wrote/developed
• Extracts or notes from presentations or courses on contracts / procurement or legal matters
• Attendance certificates on courses
• Evidence of any communication you've had with others regarding legal matters, for example, asking your insurance providers or legal team to review a contract
• Contracts you have been in charge of creating, for example, an ACE agreement
• Bill of quantities you have produced or have provided input to
• Assessment of bids from other parties you have carried out

What kind of questions to expect in your Interview?

Here are a few example questions which you might be asked for your Professional Review Interview:

• Do you do your own invoicing?
• Do you manage fees on projects or do fee proposals?
• What is the difference between your companies fee proposals + standard terms and conditions for appointment, formal contracts like ACE agreements, and bespoke client contracts?
• What are limits on liability / financial cap?
• "Reasonable skill and care" vs. "fitness for purpose"
  How does this influence your professional indemnity insurance?
• Differences between signing a document as a deed, and signing under hand... and how does this affect the period for which you remain liable after completion of services (UK).
• Describe the process of novation
• What are collateral warranties?
• What is a net contribution clause?
• Have you come across value engineering and reviewed cost plans?
• What terms are you usually appointed on?
• What do we do now that in 2035 may be unethical or illegal?
• What is a structural engineer's remit in terms of fire?
• Do you keep track of fees and spending on projects?
• What is the different between Traditional Procurement and Design & Build (D&B)?
• What does PCSA (or ECI) mean?
• What is a two-stage tender?
• What is adjudication?
• What are party wall requirements (UK)? What impacts do these have on your projects? What is the 3m and 6m rule?
• How would you describe "reasonable care"?
• How would you describe "duty of care"?

You should not be asked in your Professional Review Interview about contracts you have not worked with, though some background reading is a good idea, and will allow you to speak more knowledgeably when asked about contracts in the interview. It is worth having a look at some of the contracts that your firm has signed for some of the projects you have worked on, to see what kind of things they say, and what kind of language they use.