Where We Excel


Vinson & Elkins’ market-leading and award winning construction team has a long history of involvement in some of the largest and most complex multi-billion dollar international construction and infrastructure projects. Unlike many of our peer firms, we have a dedicated construction & engineering team comprising lawyers who focus their practice on construction and engineering matters. Our team’s position at the pinnacle of the market is demonstrated by our recognition in global legal directories, including our ranking in the top tier of both Chambers UK (Construction: International Arbitration, 2025) and Legal 500 UK (Construction: Contentious, 2025), and by the recent awards we have won.

Clients turn to our team for support across the full lifecycle of some the world’s highest value and most complex infrastructure projects. Our front-end construction and projects lawyers work hand in hand with our internationally renowned construction disputes team in order to offer clients seamless and top-tier support from cradle to grave.

Global reach

Our experience is truly global in nature and is not focused on any one region. We regularly act on projects in various jurisdictions and across geographies as diverse as the Americas, the UK, the Middle East and East Asia. Our dispute lawyers regularly handle matters in a number of courts and arbitral venues (as well as in adjudications, dispute adjudication boards, and expert determinations) seated everywhere from Helsinki to Miami, regardless of governing law and forum.

Industry Coverage

We routinely represent governments, large corporations, and parties active in the construction sector, including contractors, subcontractors, project owners, developers, architects, engineers, and vendors across industry sectors. Our sector experience includes industries as varied as transportation and related infrastructure, processing and manufacturing plants, data centers and iconic urban redevelopment projects. Our storied history of leadership in the energy sector carries through to our construction work, with the team regularly advising clients on construction projects across the energy value chain – from pipelines, LNG and petrochemical facilities right through to a wide array of renewable energy projects– including particularly notable experience of offshore wind projects. Whatever the sector of a specific project, our construction team is there to assist.

Scope of Services

We advise on the construction aspects of the whole life cycle of major projects, from procurement strategy, tender processes, and contract drafting and negotiation to roles as project counsel when design and construction works are being implemented. At the outset of projects, our disputes lawyers routinely advise clients on litigation risk, strategy, and avoidance. When disputes become unavoidable, our lawyers have a truly outstanding track record of success, whether in arbitration, litigation, before DABs and DRBs or in mediation and conciliation, and other forms of ADR. V&E lawyers have been involved in defending and pursuing claims for breach of contract, breach of warranty, design and construction defects, errors in FEED, negligence, and a vast array of typical construction disputes, such as claims for additional costs, variations and changes, delay and disruption (including cumulative impact claims), and liquidated damages, under both common law and civil law systems.

Experience

  • Acting on a number of ICC arbitrations in connection with the design and construction of a major maritime project in Central America

  • Conduct of ICC arbitral proceedings on behalf of an EPCM contractor arising out of a Middle Eastern world-class petrochemical complex, including issues relating to non-payment of invoices, delays, and the quality of engineering, procurement, and construction management services

  • Eurochem in the construction, development and $1 billion financing of 2,700 metric-tons-per-day Baltic ammonia plant located in Kingisepp, Russia 

  • Representing a specialist contractor in ICC arbitration proceedings concerning termination and costs claims for a major development project in Saudi Arabia

  • Gulf Coast Ammonia as project counsel in the development and financing of a world-scale ammonia project in Texas 

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At Vinson & Elkins, we bring decades of knowledge, skill, and experience to our clients’ most complex legal matters.

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July 15, 2026

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A Partnership of Shared Fate: The Realities and Risks of Consortiums

Large, complex construction projects often require complex team-working arrangements to deliver them. In this article for the Overseas Construction Association of Japan INC. (OCAJI), Angus Rankin and Jess Webster explore some key considerations in navigating contractor consortium arrangements, and ways to mitigate the risks of working with partners.

December 9, 2025 • Published by The Overseas Construction Association of Japan INC. (OCAJI) Autumn 2025 Journal Vol. 64

December 9, 2025 • 1-minute read

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