Protecting Commercial Outcomes and Resolving Disputes with Operational Insight
Commercial risk accumulates structurally throughout project delivery and private wealth transitions, long before formal proceedings become necessary. Hollingdales provides the continuous oversight, construction law counsel, and facilitated resolution that contain that exposure before it reaches the board.
Commercial risk surveillance, construction legal counsel, and facilitated resolution — from contract award to documented agreement
Quick Answer: Hollingdales provides continuous commercial risk surveillance for construction and infrastructure projects, construction law counsel grounded in more than 40 years of live project delivery, and nationally accredited mediation and facilitation across commercial disputes, wills and estates, and family business succession — all from Perth, Western Australia, with reach across all Australian jurisdictions.
Up to $8.9M of uncontrolled exposure
On a $90M project, variation creep and delay drift compound quietly through administrative drift, not catastrophic failure. The retainer costs less than 1⁄10th of 1% of project value.
Advice that holds under field conditions
Covering AS4000, AS4902, and FIDIC forms across ECI, D&C, EPC, EPCM, alliancing, and BOOT delivery methods on projects from $25M to $6B.
Documented agreements, not hardened positions
More than 30 years of mediation and facilitation practice across wills and estates, SME contractual disputes, and family business succession planning.
Commercial Risk, Construction Legal Advice, and Dispute Resolution in Perth and across Australia
Protecting Commercial Outcomes for Construction Projects
A structured contract administration oversight retainer operating continuously from contract award to Practical Completion, monitoring variation creep, delay entitlement drift, and Security of Payment exposure from the Principal's side. The retainer typically costs less than 1⁄10th of 1% of project value, ensuring no commercial surprise reaches the board.
Construction and Infrastructure Legal Advice
Construction law counsel built on more than 40 years of direct experience drafting, negotiating, and administering contracts across Australian Standards and FIDIC forms, covering projects from $25M to $6B. Advice that closes contracts capable of holding under field conditions, not merely of satisfying a review checklist.
Mediation and Facilitation for Wills and Estates Disputes
Nationally accredited mediation combining more than 30 years of practice with advanced collaborative training specific to wills and estates, enabling facilitators to hold emotionally charged rooms whilst interpreting legal documents in real time. Referral professionals retain their client relationships intact throughout the process.
Mediation for Business Disputes
Commercially grounded mediation across all industries, professions, and sectors, both before proceedings commence and after litigation is already under way. Converts entrenched contractual positions into documented settlements at a fraction of the cost of court proceedings, available when management time and board patience are exhausted.
Facilitation for Succession Planning
Structured family conferences convened, chaired, and documented in succession plans or deeds of family arrangement, bridging the gap between legal structure and genuine family agreement. The difficult conversations about ownership, control, and fairness happen in a structured environment rather than being deferred until a crisis forces them.
Legal advice that satisfies a review checklist does not always hold when site conditions change
Large-firm legal review produces advice that is technically defensible on paper. The structural problem is that most construction lawyers have never managed a live project through a wet season, a sovereign risk event, or a principal-driven scope change. Contractual language drafted without genuine delivery experience behind it becomes the instrument used against the client the moment conditions shift on site.
Hollingdales integrates more than four decades of continuous front-end construction law knowledge with nationally accredited mediation and facilitation capabilities — all delivered with direct, senior-level continuity on every matter. The person who drafts the contract is the person who monitors its administration and, when necessary, mediates the dispute.
- Principal-side oversight, not just delivery management
Continuous surveillance from contract award to Practical Completion, sitting above the project team without displacing the Superintendent or Project Manager. - Operational depth, not procedural neutrality
Advice and mediation grounded in 40 years of live project delivery, covering every major delivery method and contract form used in Australia. - Direct continuity, not team rotation
Michael Hollingdale is directly engaged on every matter. Accumulated project context carries through from contract award to Practical Completion, or from the first session to the signed settlement. - Perth proximity, national reach
Western Australia's concentrated construction, resources, and family business sectors require in-person engagement. National accreditation under AMDRAS extends facilitation reach across all Australian jurisdictions.
Four decades of continuous practice, recognised continuously across construction law and mediation
Michael Hollingdale was admitted to practice as a Solicitor in New South Wales and the High Court of Australia in 1982, and in Western Australia in 1985. He completed advanced mediator training through LEADR, now the Resolution Institute, in 1995, and has held national accreditation under AMDRAS since its inception. He has been lead legal adviser on infrastructure programmes ranging from $500M to $6B in value, including Gateway WA Alliance, the Perth to Mandurah Railway, Bluewaters Power Stations 1 and 2 EPC, and the Midland Health Campus DBOM PPP. He serves as Independent Chair of Wines of Western Australia, and is a member of the Law Council of Australia ADR Committee and Past Chair of the Law Council of Australia Construction and Infrastructure Committee.
40+
Years advising construction and infrastructure clients in Western Australia
18
Successive years recognised in Best Lawyers Australia — Construction Infrastructure Law
30+
Years of nationally accredited mediation practice across all industries and sectors
Best Lawyers Australia 2026
Construction Infrastructure Law — eighteenth successive year. Lawyer of the Year 2017. Also recognised in Mining Law 2026.
Lexology Index 2026
Australia and New Zealand Construction (formerly Who's Who Legal). Also recognised in Chambers Asia Pacific Leading Individuals, Construction and Infrastructure, 2006–2017.
Doyle's Guide 2026
Leading Front End Construction and Infrastructure Lawyer — eighteenth successive year. Leading Mediator Perth, Western Australia — continuously since 2018. Leading Construction and Infrastructure Law Firms WA.
Major Infrastructure Experience
Gateway WA Alliance, Perth to Mandurah Railway, Bluewaters Power Stations 1 & 2 EPC, Worsley Multi-fuel Cogen Project EPC, Midland Health Campus DBOM PPP, and Main Roads Major Projects lead legal adviser 1999–2015.
The challenges that reach Hollingdales are rarely straightforward — they are the ones that have resisted every prior approach
Board pressing to sign, but no one is watching the contract from the Principal's side
Variation creep, delay entitlement drift, and certification failures are accumulating in real time across the delivery phase with no early warning system in place. A structured commercial risk retainer commencing from contract award closes this structural gap, providing monthly dashboards and director-level reporting before exposure crystallises.
Letter-based negotiation is hardening family positions rather than resolving them
Correspondence commits parties publicly, escalating costs and fracturing relationships. A confidential mediation process that simultaneously manages emotional pressure and interprets legal documents surfaces what is actually driving the conflict and produces a documented outcome, protecting the adviser's client relationship throughout.
The legal structure exists on paper but the family conversation has never properly happened
Lawyers and accountants can design the structure, but cannot chair the difficult discussion about ownership, control, and fairness. A structured family conference convened by a neutral facilitator ensures that what is agreed about the business transition is genuine, documented, and built to survive family dynamics.
Legal review is technically clean but disconnected from how a live project actually runs
Contractual language that looks sound on paper becomes the instrument used against a client the moment programme pressure or scope change arrives. Counsel with 40 years of front-end delivery experience closes the gap between what a contract says and what a project actually does.
Legal costs are converging with the amount in dispute, and the board wants resolution
A contractual dispute running for six months or more with compounding legal fees and no visible path to resolution requires commercially grounded mediation, not further correspondence. The outcome is a signed settlement reached faster and at materially lower cost than court proceedings.
Seeking a trusted collaborator who protects client relationships, not a process that displaces them
Litigation lawyers, accountants, and financial planners refer to Hollingdales because the process moves the matter forward without damaging the professional relationships they have spent years building. National accreditation, Doyle's Guide recognition, and panel memberships provide institutional confidence for recommending the engagement internally and to opposing parties.
Questions about Hollingdales' services
How does continuous commercial risk surveillance differ from standard contract administration?
Unlike the Superintendent or Project Manager, continuous commercial risk surveillance provides independent, Principal-side oversight of the evolving contractual position from contract award through to Practical Completion. It monitors variation creep, delay entitlement drift, Security of Payment exposure, and certification integrity in real time, identifying emerging financial exposure before it crystallises into a claim or board-level surprise.
What contract forms and delivery methods does Hollingdales advise on?
Advice covers Australian Standards AS4000 and AS4902, FIDIC forms, and the full range of Australian delivery methods including Early Contractor Involvement, Design and Construct, EPC, EPCM, alliancing, and BOOT, across projects ranging from $25 million residential developments to infrastructure programmes valued between $500 million and $6 billion.
Can Hollingdales mediate complex wills and estates disputes involving both legal and family dynamics?
Yes. Hollingdales combines more than 30 years of mediation practice with advanced collaborative practice training specific to wills and estates, enabling the simultaneous management of emotional pressure and real-time interpretation of legal documents. Panel appointments with Collaborative Professionals WA Inc and Family Inheritance Solutions reflect a verified track record in this field.
How does mediation benefit SME business disputes compared with continuing litigation?
Mediation converts entrenched positions into enforceable settlements faster and at a fraction of the cost of court proceedings. Beyond the visible legal bill, it recovers the management time consumed, reduces board distraction, and contains the relational damage that prolonged litigation compounds. It is available both before proceedings commence and after pleadings have been exchanged.
Why is structured facilitation important in family business succession planning?
Succession planning fails not because the legal structure is flawed but because the critical conversation about ownership, control, and fairness is never properly held. Lawyers and accountants can design the structure but cannot chair that room. Facilitation convenes the family conference, manages competing dynamics, and ensures agreed outcomes are documented in a workable succession plan or deed of family arrangement.
Does engaging Hollingdales displace or compete with existing legal and financial advisers?
No. Hollingdales operates as a complementary collaborator to litigation lawyers, accountants, financial planners, and succession planning advisers. The commercial risk retainer sits above the project team without displacing the Superintendent. Mediation and facilitation services support, rather than replace, the existing advisory relationships that referral professionals have built with their clients.
Contain risk before it crystallises.
Resolve disputes with lasting clarity.
Whether you are a Commercial Director approaching a contract that carries latent exposure, a litigation lawyer watching a wills and estates matter harden, an SME owner whose dispute has outlasted its commercial case, or a family business founder whose succession plan exists on paper but not yet in the room — the first conversation with Hollingdales is the place to begin.
Perth, Western Australia — National Accreditation · Make an Enquiry