Construction Mediation: A Practical Handbook on Strategy, Process and Resolution | Constructive Counsel Series

Construction disputes usually do not stay confined to legal issues. Delay, payment disputes, variation claims, design problems and communication failures can disrupt delivery long before anyone files a formal claim.

Practical Handbook on Construction Mediation focuses on resolving those disputes earlier, with sound judgment and commercial sense.

Written for lawyers, engineers, contract managers, claims professionals, project leaders, in-house counsel and mediators, the book explains how mediation works in construction disputes and where it can be most effective: when the parties need a workable solution, continued performance or an important commercial relationship preserved.

It covers when mediation is suitable, how to prepare, strategy and advocacy, settlement design, enforceability, and how mediation can operate alongside arbitration, adjudication, dispute boards and other project mechanisms.

No Grandstanding. No Unnecessary Jargon. No Filler.

Just practical guidance for resolving construction disputes with clarity, structure and commercial realism.

If you are trying to keep a project moving, restart a stalled negotiation, preserve a commercial relationship or avoid the cost and disruption of full-scale proceedings, this book will help you approach construction mediation with greater confidence and better judgment.

Reviews

Mehak takes the reader inside the realities of construction projects, showing how disputes actually accumulate and how they can be resolved as the commercial and technical problems they truly are.

- Justice A.K. Sikri, Former Judge, Supreme Court of India

This is not simply a book about mediation; it is a sophisticated field guide to resolving conflict before it consumes the project, the relationship and the value at stake.

- Dr Arch Sylvia Kasanga, Senator & Construction Law Expert, Kenya

About the Author:

Mehak Oberoi is a construction and infrastructure lawyer with close to two decades of legal experience, including nearly a decade in construction law. She is a former General Counsel for GE Vernova's Hydro business in the Asia-Pacific region, where she won various awards during her 10-year tenure.

She is India's first trained and certified woman construction mediator, a published author on dispute resolution, contractual risk, and project delivery, and an expert lecturer at various universities. Her recognitions include the She Phenomenal Award, the Women Excellence Award (IAM), the Hall of Fame for General Counsels (Lawwiser), the Rising Star Award at the UK India Legal Partnership Annual Awards presented by the Law Minister of India, India Business Law Journal's Top In-House Counsel, and BW Legal World 40 Under 40. She is a Board Member of the Society of Construction Law India and is affiliated with ICC, IAMC, and CII.

Mehak is the founder of ConstructHER Legal Network, a practitioner-led international platform for women in construction, infrastructure, and energy law, now active across seven jurisdictions. She is also the author of Construction Law Explained, the first book in the Constructive Counsel series. Through the Constructive Counsel platform and series, she seeks to make complex construction law and dispute resolution issues practical, accessible, and grounded in the realities of project delivery.

Praise for The Book
Foreword by Hon'ble Dato'Mary Lim Thiam Suon
Foreword by Dr. Manoj Kumar
Foreword by David Bynmor Thomas KC
A Practitioner's Perspective by Leonora Riesenburg
Preface
How the Book and its Tools Work Together
Glossary and Acronyms
Introduction: The Anatomy of a Construction Dispute
Chapter 1. Applying the Dispute Anatomy: Practical Tools and Case Studies
Chapler 2. The Construction Claims Culture
Chapter 3. Reading the Dispute Before It Reads You: The Construction Dispute Anatomy Framework
Chapter 4. The Human Factor: Psychology, Behaviour, and Emotion in Construction Disputes
Chapter 5. Building Your Negotiation Strategy for Construction Mediation
Chapter 6. Inside the Mediation Room: Execution, Dynamics, and the Art of Reading the Day
Chapter 7. The Mediator's Role: Selection, Briefing, and What a Good One Actually Does
Chapter 8. The Dispute Type Playbooks: Specific Mediation Strategies for the Most Common Construction Conflicts
Chapter 9. Beyond Two Parties: Multi-Party Mediation, Complex Stakeholders, and Building Deals That Hold
Chapter 10. Alter the Mediation: Implementation, Institutional Learning, and Building a Dispute-Resilient Organisation
Chapter 11. The Contract as Conflict Architecture: How Standard Forms Allocate Risk, Create Disputes, and Reveal Their Secrets to a Prepared Reader
Chapter 12. Communication Failures That Create Disputes: The Notice Trap, the RFI Problem, and the Documentation Gap That Costs Millions
Chapter 13. Ground Conditions, Force Majeure, and the Uncertain Fact: Mediating When Nobody Caused the Problem, and Everybody Must Absorb It
Chapter 14. Managing Emotions in the Mediation Room: Anger, Pride, Fear, and the Psychology of Settlement Under Pressure
Chapter 15. Legal Representatives in Construction Mediation: The Advocate's Role, the Expert's Limits, and the Conversations That Happen in Car Parks
Chapter 16. Preserving the Business Relationship: The Dispute Is Temporary. The Industry Is Small. Everyone Will Meet Again.
Chapter 17. Contract Drafting for Dispute Prevention: The Best Mediation Clause is the One That Makes Mediation Unnecessary