DR. NICOLAI RITTER

CMS, BERLIN

Dr. Nicolai Ritter is a partner at the Berlin office of the international law firm CMS. He specializes in project development and provides advice on real estate business law with an emphasis on construction and planning law. The focus of his international work is giving legal advice during the construction period. Working on major building projects in project management and plant engineering, Ritter knows firsthand the importance of BIM, especially as it relates to the legal aspects of the industry.

He is member of the BIM task force of the German Court Conference on Construction and the BIM expert group of the Federal Chamber of Architects. He is also member of the Society of Construction Law (SCL).

Clients refer to him as possessing a ”high expert competence as well as accuracy and reliability” (2015/2016 JUVE manual). According to Legal 500, 2016 and 2017, “he belongs to the key persons in plant engineering and disputed buildings mandates”, and to the ”names of the next generation” respectively.

Dr. Ritter studied legal sciences at the universities of Bonn, Dresden and Bologna. Before joining CMS in Berlin in 2004, he was research assistant at the Center for European Integration Research in Bonn for several years.

BIM and Law: Adequate contract design

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the code for the digital revolution of building. It includes the cooperative planning, building, and administration of real estate by means of digital models. The BIM method thus carries increasing importance, because it also promises stronger cost and schedule controls, as well as efficiency increases throughout the cycle.

The use of BIM must be legally applicable. Along with adequate contract design, the issues of liability, copyright and IT law need to be addressed. This presentation focuses on these legal questions, in particular making clear that BIM is legally not ”critical“, but feasible. However, it requires BIM‘s right legal display, which especially pertains to the question of the contract design.