The Winfield Rock Report, prepared by May Winfield and Sarah Rock for the UK BIM Alliance, is subtitled “overcoming the legal and contractual barriers of BIM”. It is a very welcome review of the present understanding of BIM legal and contractual issues among the legal community and those who instruct them. As such, I would recommend it to anyone interested in BIM, whether from a technical, contractual or legal aspect, as well as those who are instructing lawyers on projects that will use BIM Level 2. It is thorough, well-written and practical and aims to provide a way to assist the legal community in approaching the contractual issues raised by BIM at Level 2 in a constructive and collaborative way.

The report is based upon an online survey together with a number of interviews with BIM experts, lawyers and clients. It assesses the impact of the use of BIM levels of maturity, how these are defined and how this terminology is used in the industry. At the end of the report there is a checklist of questions designed to assist lawyers who are approaching this area for the first time, in addition to the announcement of the launch of the BIM4Legal group.

…