Published Monday 27 July 2026 · By the JustEng team
Today’s global briefing covers the investigations, rulings and structural safety stories shaping forensic engineering practice — and what they mean for forensic engineer recruitment and hiring across the disputes sector. This week: the landmark Genoa verdict, a first-of-its-kind TCC cladding ruling, and live structural investigations in New York.
Genoa verdict: 12-year sentence over Morandi Bridge collapse
A Genoa court has convicted 32 people over the 2018 Morandi Bridge collapse that killed 43, sentencing former Autostrade per l’Italia chief executive Giovanni Castellucci to 12 years in prison; 25 other defendants were acquitted or cleared under the statute of limitations. Appeals are expected, extending a legal process already running nearly eight years (Al Jazeera).
Hiring angle: Verdicts of this scale reinforce how central forensic evidence has become to infrastructure accountability, and they sustain long-term candidate demand for bridge assessment specialists and expert witnesses across Europe’s disputes market.
TCC quantifies cladding contribution claim for the first time
In Mulalley & Co v Sto [2026] EWHC 1552 (TCC), the High Court assessed for the first time how a contractor’s contribution claim against the supplier of a defective external cladding system should be quantified, in a dispute arising from refurbishment of Parkside Court in Chelmsford using the StoTherm Classic system. With Sto in administration, Mulalley also pursued a building liability order against its German parent under the Building Safety Act (Kennedys).
Hiring angle: Each new cladding precedent widens the pipeline of claims needing technical input, keeping fire engineering and façade specialists in demand as expert witnesses — a core focus of our forensic engineering recruitment practice.
Manhattan high-rise conversion under forensic scrutiny
Engineers are continuing to investigate why steel beams buckled at the former Pfizer headquarters on East 42nd Street, where several Midtown blocks were evacuated earlier this month during an office-to-residential conversion. Early lines of inquiry include additional structural loads from a planned outward expansion of the tower’s upper floors (CNN).
Hiring angle: The office-to-residential conversion boom is creating a new class of structural risk, and with it new engineering vacancies for forensic structural engineers who can assess load paths in altered buildings before — not after — something goes wrong.
Albany partial collapse prompts investigation
A partial collapse at 135 Ontario Street in Albany, New York sent bricks into the street on 22 July; contractors have since partially demolished the former community centre building while the cause remains under investigation (CBS6 Albany).
Hiring angle: Ageing masonry stock failures like this drive steady recruitment of building pathology and structural assessment engineers — a discipline where the talent shortage is felt on both sides of the Atlantic.
Mackinac Bridge cleared in NTSB-prompted collision risk study
A Parsons assessment commissioned after the NTSB asked owners of 68 US bridges to evaluate collapse risk following the Baltimore Key Bridge disaster has found the Mackinac Bridge’s annual collapse frequency from vessel collision is 0.000097 — below the AASHTO threshold of 0.0001 for critical bridges (Michigan DOT).
Hiring angle: The post-Key Bridge wave of risk assessments is a reminder that proactive forensic work is now a growth market — consultancies winning this work are actively hiring, and salaries are tracked in our forensic engineering salary guide.
JustEng is a specialist engineering recruitment agency headhunting hard-to-find forensic, fire and structural engineers for investigations and disputes work. Submit your CV or register your vacancy with our team.