Published Thursday 30 July 2026 · By the JustEng team
From a court-ordered forensic evaluation of a buckling Manhattan tower to two significant cladding judgments in the English courts, today’s briefing tracks the investigations and disputes shaping forensic engineer recruitment and hiring worldwide.
Forensic evaluation ordered after Manhattan high-rise columns buckle
New York’s Department of Investigation has opened an inquiry into the partial structural failure at 235 East 42nd Street, where support columns buckled during an office-to-residential conversion that was adding floor area to 15 upper storeys, and the Department of Buildings has ordered the owner to retain a third-party engineer to conduct a full forensic evaluation (CNN).
Hiring angle: High-profile near-misses like this drive immediate candidate demand for structural investigation specialists on both sides of the Atlantic, and conversion-boom markets are a growing source of forensic engineer recruitment mandates.
TCC quantifies contractor contribution claim against cladding supplier
In Mulalley v Sto, the Technology and Construction Court assessed for the first time how a contractor’s contribution claim against the supplier of a defective external cladding system should be quantified, applying a causation analysis that attributed 85.83% of the external wall works to the Sto render and reducing the recoverable sum to around £2.03m (Kennedys).
Hiring angle: Causation-led apportionment puts a premium on rigorous technical evidence, and law firms and consultancies are hiring façade and materials specialists able to act as expert witnesses — a niche where a specialist recruitment agency earns its fee.
Landlord ordered to replace combustible ACM cladding on Wembley hotel
In Essendi UK Hotels 2 v London Property Company, the High Court found a freehold landlord in breach of its lease covenants after combustible ACM cladding was discovered on a multi-storey Wembley hotel, ordering specific performance to remove the cladding and replace it with a non-combustible alternative (Kennedys).
Hiring angle: Rulings that force remediation keep fire engineering assessors and cladding surveyors in short supply, and hospitality-sector remediation is adding a new stream of engineering vacancies for candidates with EWS1 and fire safety assessment experience.
Cladding remediation programme rated red as delivery concerns mount
The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority has downgraded the Government’s cladding remediation programme to a red delivery confidence rating, warning that the programme as planned appears to be unachievable, citing the pace of remediation and overall affordability (Construction News).
Hiring angle: A delivery gap of this scale is, at root, a capacity and talent shortage problem: closing it will require sustained hiring of remediation engineers, fire risk assessors and project leads, with salaries rising accordingly — see our forensic engineering salary guide for current benchmarks.
Grenfell charging decisions expected by the end of 2026
Prosecutors have confirmed that final decisions on criminal charges over the Grenfell Tower fire are expected by the end of 2026, with 19 companies and organisations and 58 individuals under investigation for potential offences including corporate manslaughter and building regulations breaches (The Construction Index).
Hiring angle: Whatever the charging decisions, the litigation that follows will run for years and sustain demand for expert witnesses, fire investigation specialists and disputes-focused engineers — one of the strongest long-term drivers of forensic engineering jobs in the UK.
JustEng is a specialist engineering recruitment agency headhunting hard-to-find forensic, fire and façade engineers for consultancies and claims teams worldwide. Submit your CV or register your vacancy today.