People
Sheena Sood
Senior Partner
London
Sheena is Senior Partner at Beale & Co, working alongside the Chair to set and oversee the firm’s strategic direction.
With over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry, Sheena specialises in both domestic and international project advisory and disputes work. She advises on all forms of dispute resolution, including complex, multi-party high-value litigation, mediations and international arbitrations. She is familiar with all major arbitration rules, including ICC, UNCITRAL and LCIA.
Clients describe Sheena as “tactically astute”. Her deep industry knowledge has enabled her to represent clients in often technically complex matters and to present her client’s role and the performance of their duties on a project. She has acted for numerous clients and their insurers in relation to civil claims both advancing claims for construction industry clients through the most effective means and defending negligence claims brought against them.
Sheena also advises on health and safety matters in the construction and related industries, including cases arising from fatalities and accidents on site or broader design issues.
Ranked as a Leading Lawyer in Chambers & Partners UK and The Legal 500 UK for Construction: Contentious, clients note that her “understanding of the construction industry and sophisticated strategic advice in relation to disputes and negotiations have been invaluable”.
Sheena’s experience includes:
- ADCCAC Arbitration arising from the construction of the new Abu Dhabi International Airport, the terminal complex and air and landslide infrastructure.
- Advising a firm of consulting structural and civil engineers in connection with the design and construction of the Grand Theatre de Rabat, a theatre and public arts development in Morocco.
- The resolution of complex multi-party cladding claims in the UK including historic claims arising out of the Building Safety Act 2022 including claims for Building Liability and Information Orders, resolving early in the process by adopting creative settlement strategies.
- An international ICC arbitration brought by a Netherlands company against a South African company in respect of a feasibility study for a power station in Georgia, with the seat of arbitration in London.
- Litigation in the Federal High Court of Abuja regarding transaction advisory services provided for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
- Acting in a high-profile TCC dispute in the UK over alleged external wall defects, including novel Building Liability Order claims under the Building Safety Act. Matter settled in early 2025.
- Legal proceedings in the High Court of Hong Kong Specialist Administrative Region in relation to consultancy and transaction advisory services provided in respect of the Lapichevskaya mine in Russia.
- Demands made by a Kazakhstan mining company in relation to the Shubarkol Komir JSC mine project.
- Defect and delay claims arising from the Vanuatu Interisland Shipping Support Project financed by the Asian Development Bank, the New Zealand Aid Programme, and the Government of Vanuatu.
- Acting for a global infrastructure consultancy in complex TCC proceedings in the UK over alleged hospital design defects, securing a full dismissal of claims at trial.
Sheena is a CEDR-accredited Mediator, a regular contributing author to Building magazine in the UK and a registered Foreign Legal Consultant in Ontario, Canada.