Disputes Division

DIVISION · DISPUTES

Claims, Disputes & Independent Expert Services in Infrastructure and Energy.

Sentinel Disputes connects technical facts, evidence, and causation directly to contractual frameworks. We predominantly work in conjunction with lawyers and counsel for expert services.

We do not provide legal advice and we do not represent legal opinions outside our core technical competencies.

We do not engage in quantum, we stay within our competencies.

Sentinel Disputes is a specialist practice, not a generalist advisory firm that also offers expert services.

The depth of industry experience and direct EPC delivery experience — across contractor, developer, sponsor and owner's representative roles in multiple countries— is the foundation on which every expert opinion and claims assessment is built.

Sentinel Disputes has direct development and construction experience across multiple common law and civil law jurisdictions.

SERVICE STRUCTURE

Three Pillars. One Independent Standard.

Sentinel Disputes operates under three service pillars that reflect the natural progression of a dispute from crystallisation through to tribunal.

The same independence standard applies across all three.

Disputes · Strategy & Assessment

Technical-strategic positioning before formal proceedings commence.

Sentinel's Disputes advisory provides the independent technical assessment that allows parties and their legal teams to make informed strategic decisions — whether to pursue, settle, or reframe a position — before costs and commitments escalate. This is high-leverage work.
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The quality of technical analysis at this stage determines what is arguable in formal proceedings.

Dispute strategy

Technical merits assessment.

Settlement strategy, negotiation advisory and BATNA assessment.

Claim narrative development / defence narrative development.

Pre-arbitration, pre-mediation, other ADR positioning.

Representation, facilitation, and guidance.

Claims · Entitlement & Preservation

Preserving and crystallising entitlements before the position becomes prejudiced.

Failing to issue notices within prescribed time limits, issuing notices that are technically deficient, and failing to manage time, cost and quality are some of the most common and most damaging errors in complex EPC disputes that lead to claims.
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Sentinel's EPC contract administration depth — across FIDIC, bespoke, and emerging market contract forms in common and civil law jurisdictions — provides the technical foundation for claims preservation work that a legal team alone cannot perform.

Claims avoidance, mitigation, and early-stage strategy

Claims preparation — technical foundation and evidence assembly

Entitlement analysis — contractual basis, quantum scope, and limitations

Early warning protocol review and Notice / time-bar compliance audit

Delay and disruption preliminary assessment

Progress payment certification review and dispute advisory

Variation and change order governance and entitlement review

PPA, regulatory, and government dispute technical advisory

Chinese EPC contractor claims advisory (specialist engagement)

Expert Services · Tribunal-Facing

Named, shadow, and tribunal-appointed expert services. Duty to the tribunal or court.

Sentinel's expert witness practice operates at the intersection of technical depth and legal literacy. Named expert appointments are accepted where the matter falls within Sentinel's defined competence: EPC delivery failure and causation, governance and standard of care, and multi-factor causation analysis in complex infrastructure and renewable energy disputes. Sentinel does not accept instructions on formal quantum.

Named expert witness — technical, delay, and causation (not formal quantum)

Shadow "Dirty" expert advisory — privileged, via counsel, strictly pre-instruction

Non-disclosed and non-named expert reports and technical assessments

Rebuttal reports and tribunal-appointed neutral expert services

Forensic programme and delay analysis

Adjudication, expert determination, and mediation expert support

DAB / DAAB, SOPA adjudication strategy and support

Governance, standard of care, and owner / contractor interface failures

EPC failure and multi-factor causation / concurrent failure analysis

EXPERT POSITIONING · THREE CORE CHARACTERISATIONS

Three Core Dispute Characterisations.

Sentinel's expert witness practice is organised around three distinct dispute characterisations that define where its expertise is most directly applicable and most credible before arbitral tribunals.

These are not generic categories — they reflect the specific intersection of Sentinel's 34+ years of industry experience and 19-year international EPC record and the dispute patterns that dominate APAC renewable energy and infrastructure disputes across common law and civil law jurisdictions.

This is not expertise derived from reviewing other people's projects.

EPC Delivery Failure & Termination Causation

Assessment of technical causation in EPC contract failures — multi-factor delay causation, constructibility failures, interface breakdown between EPC contractor, OEM, BoP, and grid operators.

EPC failure and delay causation

COD achievement and commissioning disputes

Interface breakdown: EPC · OEM · BoP · grid

Termination for convenience and default

BESS / wind / hybrid performance test and availability disputes

Constructibility failure and design interface

Defects and equipment failures

Governance, Standard of Care & Owner Conduct

Assessment of whether project governance met the standard expected of an experienced project owner, developer, board or contractor — escalation failure, oversight gaps, reporting inconsistencies, instruction quality, variation management, and interface co-ordination. This is Sentinel's highest differentiation moat. Governance and standard-of-care opinions require senior executive project delivery experience and expertise at the relevant scale.

Board and C-suite escalation failure

Owner instruction quality and variation management

Interface co-ordination failures: owner · contractor · grid

Oversight gaps and reporting inconsistency

Lender governance obligations and MDB compliance

Regulatory and consent management failures

Multi-Factor Causation & Concurrent Failure Analysis

Integration of technical, contractual, and governance factors into a synthesised causation opinion addressing concurrent causation, dominant cause analysis, and allocation of responsibility across multiple contributing parties. The most technically demanding form of infrastructure expert opinion — and the category where Sentinel's owner and contractor direct EPC experience and postgraduate legal literacy create the most defensible analytical framework.

Concurrent delay and disruption analysis

Dominant cause analysis and responsibility allocation

Multi-party causation: contractor · owner · OEM · grid

Technical and contractual causation synthesis

Forensic programme analysis supporting causation opinion

POSITIONING · WHAT SENTINEL IS AND IS NOT

What Sentinel Disputes Is and Is Not.

Sentinel Is

A governance and causation specialist with direct EPC and project owner delivery credentials

An independent expert for tribunals, courts, and arbitral institutions

A technically grounded expert services practitioner who has managed contracts from both sides across common law and civil law jurisdictions

An expert who understands both the contractor's and principal's perspective in both developed, frontier and emerging markets

A principal-led boutique with documented governance and independence architecture

Sentinel Is Not

A delay modelling firm or schedule analyst

A claims preparation or quantum modelling shop

A firm competing on price, volume, and theory.

An advisor who has only occupied one side of the EPC relationship, or who has only consulted

A managed team consultancy or managed services provider

THE SENTINEL INDEPENDENCE STANDARD

Independence. Documented. Applied to Every Instruction.

These standards are applied to every Sentinel instruction and documented in every report — not as a recitation, but as the governing constraint on every opinion Sentinel delivers.

Duty to the tribunal

The expert's duty is to the tribunal — not to the instructing party. This duty is acknowledged at the head of every report, and overrides any inconsistent instruction received from counsel or the client.

IBA rules & siac 2025

All expert work is conducted in compliance with the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration, SIAC 2025 and the specifically relevant jurisdictional requirements of the seat.

Conflict checking

Before accepting any instruction, Sentinel conducts a formal conflict check across all active and recently completed matters. Instructions are declined where a conflict cannot be cleanly resolved.

SSN phase separation

Structure or Secure advisory on a matter precludes Founder appointment as Expert on the same matter. Where Navigate advisory has been provided, a separate Expert practitioner is engaged with complete personnel, file and information separation.

No equity, no affiliation

The Founder holds no equity interest in any project or entity on which Sentinel advises. Sentinel is not affiliated with any EPC contractor, developer, lender or law firm.

PI insurance

Sentinel holds professional indemnity insurance. Engagement letter and PI details available on request.