Published Tuesday 11 August 2026 · By the JustEng team
A peer review report is due this week on the Manhattan tower whose columns buckled in July, the English courts continue to widen the reach of building liability orders, and the Grenfell criminal files move closer to the CPS. Here is what is moving in forensic engineering and construction disputes, and what each development means for forensic engineer recruitment and expert witness hiring.
Manhattan conversion tower: peer review report due 14 August
New York City’s Department of Buildings has ordered the developer behind the former Pfizer headquarters conversion on East 42nd Street to appoint a second engineering firm to peer review the original structural drawings and report by 14 August. Two support columns buckled on the 21st floor of 235 East 42nd Street on 7 July, prompting evacuations; the developer attributed the buckling to added weight, temporary shoring and new steel have since been installed, and the DOB has declared the structure safe and stable. Reported by Gothamist.
Hiring angle: Independent peer review on a live, high-profile conversion is exactly the work that drives demand for chartered structural engineers with investigation experience rather than pure design backgrounds. Where office-to-residential conversion is a growth market, so is the market for engineers who can interrogate someone else’s load path under deadline.
Mulalley v Sto: first building liability order granted by default judgment
In Mulalley & Co Limited v Sto Limited and Sto SE & Co KGaA [2026] EWHC 1552 (TCC), the Technology and Construction Court held a German parent jointly and severally liable for its UK subsidiary’s defective external wall system, in the first building liability order granted by default judgment. The court accepted total costs of £3,431,633.53, then applied a causation analysis attributing 85.83% of the external wall works and 69.03% of the overall development to the render system, reducing the recoverable sum to £2,025,499.62. Analysis from Osborne Clarke.
Hiring angle: Apportionment at that level of precision is won or lost on expert evidence, and claimant and defendant teams alike need façade and materials specialists who can quantify contribution, not simply describe a defect. This is currently the sharpest area of candidate demand across forensic engineering recruitment in the UK.
Crest Nicholson v Ardmore: anticipatory liability orders confirmed
In Crest Nicholson v Ardmore [2026] EWHC 789 (TCC), the court held that section 130 of the Building Safety Act does not require the original company’s liability to be finally established before a building liability order can be made. The court may therefore order in advance that, if the original company is ultimately found liable, associated companies will be liable too. Case note from Pump Court Chambers.
Hiring angle: Anticipatory orders pull expert investigation forward in the litigation timeline, which means instructions land earlier and run longer. Consultancies staffing for that shift are hiring investigators with delay, quantum and defect analysis capability side by side.
Essendi Hotels: good condition covenant breached without physical disrepair
A judgment handed down on 5 June in Essendi UK Hotels 2 Limited v London Property Company Limited found a landlord in breach of its obligation to keep a commercially leased high-rise hotel in good condition on the basis of cladding and fire safety issues, despite there being no physical disrepair. Commentary from Freeths.
Hiring angle: Extending exposure to commercial portfolios widens the client base for fire and façade investigation work well beyond residential blocks. Expect more instructions from hotel, student accommodation and commercial landlords, and more fire engineer vacancies attached to portfolio-wide surveys.
Grenfell criminal files on course for the CPS in September
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed its investigation remains on course to submit the remaining files to the Crown Prosecution Service by September 2026, with charging decisions expected before the tenth anniversary of the fire in June 2027. Fifty-seven individuals and 20 organisations are under investigation, for offences including corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, fraud and health and safety offences. Reported by Construction Enquirer.
Hiring angle: Criminal proceedings on this scale absorb senior technical expertise for years, and the experts involved are effectively removed from the commercial disputes market while instructed. That squeeze is a principal reason expert witness salaries have held firm even as wider construction hiring has softened.
Angeles City collapse: task force findings awaited
Investigations continue into the collapse of a nine-storey mixed-use building under construction in Barangay Balibago, Angeles City, in the Philippines, on 24 May 2026. A fact-finding task force drawing on city government, law enforcement, national agencies and professional engineering bodies was ordered to submit an initial report within 15 days and a final report within 60 days, with findings to be made public. Engineers are examining whether construction followed the structural plans submitted to the city, and the durability of the materials used. Reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Hiring angle: Multi-agency collapse investigations are the clearest demonstration of why forensic teams need engineers fluent in as-built verification and materials testing, not only design review. UK consultancies with international disputes practices routinely recruit on exactly that profile.
JustEng is a specialist engineering recruitment agency headhunting hard-to-find investigators, expert witnesses and disputes engineers. See our forensic engineering recruitment practice and current forensic engineering salary guide. If you are considering a move, submit your CV; if you are building a team, register your vacancy and we will come back with a shortlist.