Michael Sergeant
Partner, Head of Construction
About Michael
Michael is the Head of HFW’s Global Construction Team, and in addition to the management responsibilities this entails, he maintains an active practice.
Since qualifying in 1995, Michael has advised on legal and contractual issues of projects, not only in the UK and continental Europe but also in the Middle East, North Africa, East Asia and Central America.
He has run many high-value cases, including a number with a value over a billion dollars, via litigation and arbitration as well as other disputes processes. The projects he has experience of have included renewables, oil & gas, offshore and transport infrastructure.
Michael is the co-author of the only specialist book dealing solely with changes to work scope on projects, called Construction Contract Variations, published by Informa. He also regularly speaks at conferences, lectures on a university course and was on the review panel for the FIDIC 2027 suite.
Market Recognition
Leading Partner: Legal 500, UK 2025 – Construction Contentious
Band 3: Chambers & Partners, UK 2025 – Construction: International Arbitration
“Michael Sergeant has an extraordinary capacity to understand various internal decisions, needs, and changes, and adapts his work immediately to the changed circumstances. He always manages to get to the point in a very short time and provide the support that is actually required and needed.” Legal 500, UK 2024 – Construction Contentious
“Michael is a lawyer who is easy to get on with and makes complex legal issues easy to understand.” Chambers & Partners, UK Construction 2023: Contentious
“Michael Sergeant is an outstanding litigator, a brilliant manager of very large multinational and multi-disciplinary teams and has superb commercial awareness. He is a very good lawyer, and astute to the commercial objectives of clients; and he has enormous experience of, and expertise in, disputes in the Middle East.” Legal 500, UK 2021 – Construction Contentious