The Legal Guide to Contract Works and Construction Liability Insurance in Australia was written by the firm's construction and engineering partner, Patrick Mead, originally to dovetail with a trip he was taking to visit London a few years ago.

"I have London based clients who do business in Australia," he said. "The work we do in London tends to be for a lot of Lloyds syndicates and for a lot of other London market insurers who undertake insured risks in Australia.

"A lot of the big infrastructure projects, the $2 billion plus projects in particular, are insured in the London market, particularly in the contract works sphere."

The book is aimed at insurers as well as construction and engineering companies and their advisors, and deals with the interpretation of contract works and construction liability insurance policies in courts in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Mead said that while the bulk of work he does for London based clients is with regard to Australian projects, he has also acted on global matters, including the pursuit of a recovery for a London based underwriter in relation to a gold mine in Tanzania.

Mead added that the book draws heavily on UK cases because a large amount of the legal development in this area derives from the UK.

"The development of the case law has been very similar in both countries, but has diverged in recent years," he said.