A lead consultant is responsible for coordinating various design disciplines on a project. They ‘take the lead’ and coordinate subconsultants to bring a project’s design together. Hopefully, the lead consultant gets to reap the rewards while avoiding the many pitfalls of being the champion of the design.
In this article, I speak from experience. Or at least from my experience sitting on the side lines and helping lead consultants throughout the various phases of a big project. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly (legally speaking) when it comes to being a lead designer. Let’s dive in.
Key Takeaways
- Lead designers are often architects and sometimes engineers. They are responsible for coordinating and contracting with other design disciplines
Don’t just quote prices—tailor submissions to demonstrate insight and value. Solve problems the client hasn’t identified yet and show your expertise.
Set realistic expectations with the client from the start. Many disputes stem from clients expecting more than the contract allows due to unclear goals.
Ensure you include a margin on your subconsultants’ fees and price in your overheads and responsibilities as lead consultant to stay profitable.
A good relationship makes it easier to handle challenges and can lead to more recognition if the project is successful.
Engage a construction-savvy lawyer to review your lead consultant contract and draft clauses that limit liability, control scope creep, and properly define services and variations. They will understand the common risks in consulting contracts and help to mitigate risk.
How to Reap the Rewards as Lead Design Consultant
I don’t want to tell you how to suck eggs. After all, I’m a lawyer and not a commercial or technical expert. However, this list of recommendations is drawn from my experience in working with lots of different lead consultants. Here’s how you can truly get good outcomes as a lead consultant:
- Don’t just quote if there’s something that doesn’t make sense in a RFT. Craft your tender submissions to solve a problem the client didn’t even know they had. Don’t straight up give them the solution, but give them enough to show you know what you’re doing, can deliver and demonstrate value. This is a good segway into considering design risk.
- Don’t overpromise. Be transparent. If your client has unrealistic goals, tell them. Most professional design consultants have experienced clients that have expectations that are not grounded in reality. This will probably lead to budget blow-outs, an unhappy client and (possibly) legal claims that make you wish you hadn’t submitted your tender
- Add a margin to your subconsultants’ fees that will more than cover your overheads to manage them. You may as well not take the lead consultant role if you don’t make a healthy profit on top of your subconsultants’ fees
- Maintain a good relationship with your client throughout the project. If you’ve done everything else right, this should be an easy one. It’s easier to reap the rewards of being the lead consultant and having your name splashed across an award-winning project if your client is proud to have you as the choreographer of design
Anticipating Problems, Avoiding Them or (at least) Fixing Them Fast
You’re not a lead consultant unless you hit a snag or two. It’s going to happen and you need to anticipate what the likely problems are going to be and turn your mind to avoiding them. If you can’t do that then you need to have a half decent sense for how to fix problems, and fast.
The client will expect a lot of you (for free)
You’re the one the client will go to if they change their mind, have budget or constructability issues or just generally want more than what they’re paying you for.
This sounds okay if you’re wanting to design a world-class, renowned project and deliver on all your fancy marketing material. But it may mean doing a whole lot more coordination, redesign and meeting minutes than you allowed for in your lump sum fee. If you’re not on top of things, you’ll find yourself being able to record some decent pro bono hours.
If that doesn’t sound like the kind of lead consultant role you tendered for, try:
- engaging a legal professional to properly review your lead consultant contract. It’s not just about reviewing legal stuff like limitations of liability or indemnity terms. A good consultant lawyer will negotiate better variation clauses, sense check clauses that can lead to scope creep and doing ‘freebies’
- making sure your scope is tight. Yes, promising to deliver lots of things (think ‘including but not limited to’) will help you win a tender for a lead consultant role. But you’re not going to be able to identify or get approval for variations without a well-defined scope. Better yet, include exclusions and clear assumptions in the scope of services – if they change, your fee should too
Your subconsultants are either gamechangers or liabilities
I’ve helped on a few big (I’m talking REALLY big) projects. Having been the legal professional acting for lead consultants engaging subconsultants to help deliver these projects has given me a sense of both relief and caution.
It’s relief when my lead consultant client engages the subconsultant they’ve worked with for years and who are consistently good and sometimes save the day. But I’m cautious when helping my client sign up a new subconsultant who doesn’t have the technical design expertise, capacity, relevant project experience or quality assurance processes to contribute to the successful delivery of a project.
Choose your subconsultants wisely and no matter what, make sure your sub-consultancy agreement contains terms that are back-to-back with your head contract. And for goodness sake, make sure your subconsultants have enough insurance!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the biggest risk of being a lead design consultant?
Coordinating multiple parties while meeting the client’s expectations without clear scope or adequate fees can lead to financial, legal, and reputational risk.
How can I avoid doing extra work for free?
By defining your scope clearly, using exclusions, and having variation clauses that allow you to charge when assumptions change or the scope expands.
Should I add a margin to my subconsultants’ fees?
Yes. You’re taking on responsibility for their work, so your margin should cover your overhead and risks in managing them.
How do I protect myself from client disputes?
Using a lawyer to ensure your contract addresses indemnities, limitations of liability and scope creep helps. But ultimately, doing a good job, doing it on time and ticking off all the promises you made is the best way to protect yourself. Also, please follow your QA processes – they are there for a good reason!
What makes a subconsultant a ‘gamechanger’ or a ‘liability’?
Subconsultants who are experienced, reliable, and proactive improve project outcomes. Those who are inconsistent or underperform create problems and reflect badly on you.
