The commercial team that resolves the position.
Negotiation, settlement and contract strategy for Australia's major projects — delivered by chartered quantity surveyors and commercial managers who have worked both sides of the table.
Across the whole commercial life of a contract
Shape the deal
We select the delivery model, test the scope and estimate, allocate risk to the party best placed to carry it, and negotiate terms both parties can live with — built to be simple to run, because the same people stay to administer what they designed.
Protect commercial value
Value is protected in the routine — the notice served in time, the change priced while it is still a change, subcontracts that sit back to back with the head contract, and exposure identified before it becomes a claim. Our commercial managers and quantity surveyors run that routine inside your team or alongside it.
Understand what is at stake
We bookend time and money for every head of claim with forensic delay and quantum analysis, then model what your team knows into a probability-weighted range of recovery — a clear view of the exposure before significant cost is committed.
Find the route to resolution
We recommend the route on the numbers — structured negotiation, mediation, expert determination or adjudication — and then run it, on a project you still have to deliver. Where a matter must escalate, it moves to our ring-fenced expert practice.
Commercial intelligence
Precise analysis and pragmatic advice sit underneath every stage of the commercial lifecycle. We structure project and site data, apply statistical and probabilistic analysis, test positions through quantitative risk modelling and bring current market knowledge into the decision. LWARE SMART and LOGIC+ provide an independent evidence and programme layer where the project demands it.
Four reasons owners, operators and Tier 1 contractors engage Lewis Woolcott
Owners, operators and Tier 1 contractors across resources, energy, rail, water and government — on both sides of the contract, and often on both sides of the same programme at different times.
The people who design the deal stay to run it
The commercial model is built to work in delivery — simple to run, clear to both sides, priced for the risk actually held — because the same team administers what it designed.
A forensic bench behind every position
Chartered quantity surveyors and commercial managers who have worked both sides of the table, with forensic quantum and delay experts testing every position before it leaves the building.
The likely outcome, not the best case
Decision-tree and simulation modelling converts your team’s knowledge into a probability-weighted range of recovery — so you know what to defend and what to walk away from before cost is committed.
Resolution built to preserve the relationship
The measure is value recovered or protected without proceedings. Whatever the route, the objectives do not change: build trust, bring the parties together, and leave a platform for the next contract.
The people who hold your position
A commercial outcome is produced by the judgement of the people holding your position — and by the confidence the other side has in dealing with them. The division is led by two senior practitioners whose experience covers the full commercial life of a project: the deal agreed before anyone signs, and the position closed out once it is live.
Dan Woolcott
Some 30 years across public and private infrastructure in Australia, Asia and Europe — road and rail, utilities, power and transmission, water and resources — advising from business case through procurement strategy, negotiation, delivery and close-out. Deep experience of collaborative models including dual-stage ECI and Incentivised Target Cost alongside D&C and PPP.
Formerly Head of Commercial and Risk (Northern Region) at Lendlease Engineering and Head of Pre-Contracts (Southern Region) at Laing O'Rourke, on projects including the $1.2Bn Gateway Upgrade and the $650M Kingsford Smith Drive. Member of three dispute avoidance and resolution boards on projects totalling over $3.5Bn.
Jesse Mitchell
Over 15 years on major building, infrastructure and resource projects, specialising in the point at which a commercial position gets tested — forensic delay and disruption analysis, quantum, claim preparation and negotiated resolution.
Jesse has led claim development, commercial advice and settlement positions on programmes including MacIntyre Windfarm, Cross River Rail, Clarke Creek Windfarm, Peak Downs Highway and the Lombrum Naval Base Upgrade, and has been appointed on matters proceeding to adjudication, arbitration and litigation. He brings an accurate view of how a position will be tested if it does not settle — which is usually what makes it settle.
Commercial support shaped to the problem.
Different problems need different shapes of support. Every engagement is tailored to the project, the contract and the organisation running it — and we are clear from the outset about which shape you are buying.
Scoped commercial advisory
A defined outcome to a defined scope: a contracting strategy set, a claim built, a final account closed. We hold the pen, the method and the professional risk.
Commercial resolution
A negotiation-led mandate to close a position: entitlement built, strategy set, and a senior commercial negotiator at the table with you.
Embedded commercial teams
Commercial managers, quantity surveyors, contract administrators and delay experts working inside your team under your governance — each with a named Lewis Woolcott lead, our method, templates and peer review behind them.
Technology-led
LWARE SMART deployed across the works as an independent record of plant and resource activity, turning commercial argument into commercial evidence.
The commercial model follows the shape of the problem. Scoped engagements can be priced around a phase or deliverable, embedded teams by role — and where appropriate, we will consider arrangements aligned with the outcome.
We work alongside your lawyers, not instead of them.
We bring the commercial analysis, strategy and negotiation that complements your legal and technical advisers. Where independent expert evidence is required, the interface with our separately ring-fenced expert practice is managed so that independence is protected.
Let's talk about your position.
Whether the contract is still being shaped or a position has already diverged, we're here to help.