Published Sunday 16 August 2026 · By the JustEng team
Forensic engineering has rarely been busier. A near-collapse in Midtown Manhattan is still under investigation, the Technology and Construction Court has handed down a run of building safety judgments that widen who can be held liable, and the Grenfell criminal files are moving towards charging decisions. Here is what happened, and what each development means for forensic engineer recruitment and expert hiring.
Former Pfizer HQ: forensic evaluation ordered after columns buckle
Two steel columns buckled on the 21st floor of the 37-storey former Pfizer headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street, New York, on 7 July, with several upper floors sagging and the site evacuated. New York’s Department of Buildings launched a full investigation and ordered the owner to retain a third-party engineer for a forensic evaluation; engineers interviewed subsequently pointed to reinforcing plates called for in the project plans that did not appear to have been installed. Read the engineers’ assessment.
Hiring angle: Incidents like this generate years of investigative and expert work, and the immediate candidate demand is for structural engineers who can read as-built conditions against design intent. Office-to-residential conversion is now a specialism in its own right, and consultancies are actively headhunting for it.
Conversion scrutiny widens across New York
Following the incident, the city’s Department of Buildings reviewed 180 construction sites connected to the firms tied to the Midtown project and issued dozens of violations, with concern spreading to other conversion schemes across the five boroughs. More on the wider review.
Hiring angle: Regulator-driven inspection programmes at this scale absorb structural capacity quickly, and UK firms with US-facing work are feeling the same squeeze on senior investigators. It is a reminder that expert-grade engineers are a global talent shortage, not a local one.
Crest Nicholson v Ardmore reshapes building liability orders
In Crest Nicholson Regeneration Ltd v Ardmore Construction Ltd (in administration) and others [2026] EWHC 789 (TCC), the High 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 associated companies will be liable if the original company is ultimately found liable. Read the case analysis.
Hiring angle: A wider liability net means more parties instructing their own experts on the same building, multiplying the number of technical investigations per dispute. That is feeding directly into forensic engineering vacancies at consultancies building out defect-analysis teams.
Mulalley v Sto: first quantification of a cladding supplier’s contribution
In Mulalley & Co Ltd v Sto Ltd and Sto SE & Co KGaA [2026] EWHC 1552 (TCC), a German parent company was held jointly and severally liable for its UK subsidiary’s defective external cladding system. It is reported as the first building liability order granted by default judgment, and the first time the court has assessed the just and equitable contribution payable by a cladding product supplier. See the legal commentary.
Hiring angle: Apportionment between contractor, designer and product supplier is decided on technical evidence, so materials and building physics specialists are increasingly the deciding voice in these claims. Candidates who combine facade knowledge with report-writing discipline are among the most sought-after in the market.
Joint TCC and First-tier Tribunal case management arrives
In Wallace Estates Ltd v Durkan Estates Ltd, Mr Justice Constable and Judge Siobhan McGrath handed down judgment in the first joint hearing of its kind, giving initial guidance on managing concurrent TCC and FTT proceedings in related Building Safety Act claims, structured in line with the Fourth Edition of the TCC Guide dated 1 July 2026. Read the analysis.
Hiring angle: Joint proceedings compress timetables, and experts who can produce defensible reports to a tight programme are being retained earlier and paid accordingly. Expect that to keep pressure on salaries for experienced expert witnesses.
Grenfell: files to the CPS by September
The Metropolitan Police confirmed in May 2026 that its investigation remains on course to submit remaining files to the CPS by September 2026, with charging decisions expected before the tenth anniversary of the fire in June 2027. The force has stated that 57 individuals and 20 organisations are under investigation as suspects. More on the prosecutions.
Hiring angle: Criminal proceedings of this scale draw on fire engineering and materials expertise for years, tightening an already thin pool. Firms planning ahead are recruiting associate-level investigators now rather than competing for them in 2027.
JustEng is a specialist engineering recruitment agency headhunting hard-to-find forensic engineers, expert witnesses and defect analysts. Explore forensic engineering recruitment, benchmark pay with our forensic engineering salary guide, submit your CV confidentially, or register your vacancy and we will map the expert market for you.