Leeds has benefited significantly from the trappings of a booming economy. Whole swathes of the city centre have been regenerated and new bars, restaurants and apartment blocks are opening all the time. To support this development, new jobs in a variety of sectors have been created. This growth is forecast to continue and will place even greater demands on the roads and existing public transport services. Thousands of vehicles already travel in and out of Leeds on a daily basis and the major roads have become congested.

Tram systems in other cities, such as Manchester, Croydon and Sheffield, have already proved to be highly successful at reducing congestion by providing an alternative transport option. The much-vaunted Leeds Supertram will be no different, providing the people of Leeds with a fast, efficient, frequent, clean, modern, reliable and much-needed alternative mode of transport. This will be a major benefit to motorists and other commuters.

Unfortunately, in a decision that angered many in Leeds, the Department for Transport sent Leeds City Council back to the drawing board so that it could reassess the scope of the project in the light of costings that the department described as "unacceptable".

Although a major setback for Leeds, it is not uncommon for major schemes such as the Supertram project to encounter problems that can have a substantial impact on the timetable of the project, or even the overall viability of the project.

Generally speaking, it is difficult to predict accurately how long projects will take to reach financial close. They are complicated, unwieldy and highly sensitive to various influences, whether coming from within the project itself or externally. In their lifetime, they are subject to a huge number of uncertainties, each of which could have a significant impact on the project's ability to progress. Cost increases are but one of a large number of issues that could have such an effect.

Clients expect their lawyers to have a certain skill-set when embarking on a project. The need for sector knowledge is taken as read. However, the project lawyer's mettle will inevitably be judged by his reaction to any one of those circumstances that can potentially throw a project off course.

Lawyers acting on projects can expect to become involved in more issues than the purely legal. Clients look to them for business and strategic advice, as well as advice on the processes that affect them. They are, therefore, expected to muck in when things get difficult. Public sector clients are often only involved in these deals once – career project managers are very rare in the public sector. This often means that they are unused to facing issues that crop up on large infrastructure projects.

Project managers are subject to huge pressures. At a local level, the population and politicians are not really interested in why a project has hit a delay. All they know is that the infrastructure they have been promised is not being built. In addition, pressure will inevitably be brought to bear by politicians acting on the national stage – they have policies to implement, and will impose tight deadlines on their delivery – particularly when a general election is looming.

Projects lawyers will often have good contacts in the relevant government department and this can prove to be extremely useful when tensions arise. It is important to keep the department on side and abreast of current developments with a project. The client might overlook this when other things are going on. Discussing developments and issues as they arise with the relevant contacts in the department can often lead to problems being averted, because decisions inside the client organisation can be made with departmental requirements and expectations in mind.

The days of bidders being prepared to spend large amounts of money on bidding for projects are long gone. Bid costs are a huge issue and will be kept under review as projects develop. With this in mind, the unforeseeable event is as much an issue for bidders as it is for the public sector. If the bidders are not kept abreast of events as they arise, and if they are not involved in the decisions that determine how the project and its procurement process should adapt when problems arise, the public sector runs the risk of bidders withdrawing from the project altogether.

True competition is a real issue in major infrastructure projects because it is unusual to have more than two or three serious bidders involved in a project. This means that a bidder walking away from a project could have a real impact on the ability of the public authority to receive bids that represent real value for money. Projects lawyers will usually have experience of working for both the public and private sectors. They are, therefore, able to advise public sector clients on what the bidders should reasonably expect of the procurement process and how best to involve them in that process, particularly when problems arise.

Nobody expects a project to flow smoothly to financial close without encountering a single problematical issue. However, as and when such issues do arise, it is important that they are dealt with as effectively as possible. Projects lawyers should be well placed to use their experience of previous projects to advise clients on the options available to them to resolve particular issues. It is often the case that there will be no right answer. Most problems involve a delicate balance of competing interests, such as transfer of risk and affordability. Projects lawyers must be prepared to give robust advice, rather than sitting on the fence and expecting clients to take decisions alone. That said, clients should not be allowed to hide behind their advisers. It is important from an early stage in a project to make sure that the client understands that it needs to take ownership of its project and the project's process.

The role of a projects lawyer has become more akin to a project manager than a 'mere' provider of legal advice. Inevitably the role also involves crisis management. Perhaps the greatest skill is to ensure that the client does not see any situation as a crisis, rather a problem that can be solved. While the client may lack the relevant knowledge and experience to resolve such problems, a projects lawyer should be able to provide knowledge and experience at all stages of the project so as to ensure its relatively smooth progress, no matter what obstacles are thrown in its way.

It is to be hoped that the problems facing the Leeds Supertram project will be resolved quickly, without negating the beneficial effects that the project has the potential to deliver.

Michael Boyd is head of the major projects group and Ingrid Hoffbauer is an associate at Pinsents in Leeds.