Standard Form of Building Contracts Forum 2022 and Book Launch Kicks Off The New Year With a Bang

The start of the new year saw Datuk Professor Sundra Rajoo launch his latest book in grand fashion in a hybrid event that brought together in-person attendees and a virtual crowd in one seamless setting.

Held at Bangunan AIAC on Jan 14, the Standard Form of Building Contracts Forum 2022 was jointly organised by Legal Plus and L2 i-CON while the book launch was in conjunction with LexisNexis Malaysia. The book launch and dialogue were livestreamed on Legal Plus, L2 i-CON, LexisNexis and other partners’ Facebook and Linkedin pages.

Datuk Sundra who is the founding President of Asian Institute of Alternative Dispute Resolution said his latest book, Standard Form of Building Contracts Compared is a compendium on construction law practiced in Standard Form of Building Contracts and uses a four-prong approach that starts by examining the history and application of 6 local forms and 2 international forms.

It then compares the forms by subject area with PAM 2018 Form as the baseline, followed by detailed commentary of 40 clauses in the PAM 2018 Form while showing similar provisions on other various forms and how they deal with it, before finally exploring the entire gamut of possible provisions that are found in other standard forms.

“I really hope it will guide users and answer some questions that are important in the course of selecting, using and implementing Standard Forms. I think the book will be instructive but more importantly, stimulate debate and dialogue,” said Datuk Sundra before officially launching the book with other VIPs by pressing a large panel screen before a crowd of about 100 in-person attendees and hundreds more virtual users.

Datuk Sundra joked that when his publisher learnt he had written 2,400 pages for the book, they implored him to stop writing additional content.

“My publisher said absolute no more, before it (the book) had to be split into two volumes,” he joked, adding the book was written in only 8 months thanks to the help of an editorial board consisting of several young Malaysian lawyers.

Despite 2020 and 2021 largely being the year of the pandemic, Datuk Sundra said they were productive years for him as he was able to author 2 books, including a 1,928 page book on Law Practice and Procedure of Arbitration in India that was published in Nov 2021.

Earlier, in the welcoming speech by Chief Justice of International Financial Centre Dubai and chairman of Legal Plus Tun Datuk Seri Dr Zaki bin Tun Azmi said it was exciting for them to organise their first ever hybrid event and congratulated Datuk Sundra on his latest book.

Tun Zaki said the forum’s 11 panelists and 3 moderators comprising of prominent judges, lawyers, engineers and contractors will discuss the differences and similarities of the different standard building contracts.

The three session topics in the forum were; Compare Payment and Variation Order Clauses, Compare Extension of Time and Liquidated Damages Clauses, and Compare Termination Clauses.

The sessions were kept lively throughout the afternoon with lots of nuggets of information with questions and feedback from the virtual crowd appearing in real time on a large screen on stage with some being posed to the panelists on stage during the Q&A sessions.

After the forum, Datuk Sundra delivered the closing speech before picking Jaspal Singh as the winner of the lucky draw who brought home a copy of Standard Form of Building Contracts Compared.

L2 i-CON director Cindy Wong said she was ecstatic the company’s first hybrid and physical event was a resounding success.

“We made a name for ourselves organising a variety of virtual events in the last two years and to see us doing our first physical event was really an important milestone for us. The feedback we received from everyone was also great” she said.

The hybrid event also saw several partner booths set up to promote their products and services while a specialised AI Powered Facial Recognition system scanned each person that came to the event. There was also a fully immersive 3D rendered green screen photo booth that allowed attendees to bring home a unique memento of themselves from the event.