Construction and Development

Areas of Focus

With hands-on experience at every stage of a project’s lifecycle, we understand the budgetary, timeline, and management realities in developing, constructing, and operating large-scale projects.

For our team, developing projects in partnership with clients is a long-term relationship. We strive to become embedded in our clients’ teams, leveraging 25 years of knowledge and practical experience to identify potential issues up front and strategize creative solutions.

Our team helps clients navigate projects from inception through operation. We have experience with a wide range of projects, whether a project requires community buy-in, managing stakeholders with diverse interests, or public, private, or innovative financing. Drawing on our industry experience as contractors, project managers, architects, and engineers, as well as our legal expertise, we structure, negotiate, and manage contracts to help clients mitigate project risks at every phase. To keep projects on track, we assist the client with resolving conflicts efficiently. If issues escalate, we defend our clients’ interests in any forum.

We design client teams based on holistic project needs. Our core team handles development, design, real estate, construction, and operational facets of a project. As needed, we bring in colleagues with subject matter expertise in land use, environmental, and government affairs to address specific legal issues.

Construction and Development Client Results

Construction Design Transactions

Lead trial counsel in a complex governmental contracting case arising from the attempted construction of a state-of-the-art nuclear waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The case involved hundreds of millions of dollars in claims and months of trial.
Counsel for a large, publicly funded art museum in connection with the design and construction of a very high profile addition. The building addition had numerous, highly technical problems and the claim amount exceeded $30 million.
Representation of one of North America's largest gas pipeline companies. We are reviewing and revising its design, construction, procurement, service and management operations and contracts, using a web-based system involving modules and tracking systems.
Lead counsel for a Department of Transportation in a western U.S. state regarding claims of faulty engineering on a freeway overpass. The claims against our client were in excess of $30 million. There were numerous parties and highly technical issues.
Partnered with in-house counsel for a major U.S. mining company and other U.S. and Canadian counsel to form a 50/50 partnership with a Canadian mining company. The company developed a $1.4 billion copper-gold-molybdenum project in southwestern Alaska and will engineer, permit, construct, and operate the project.
Drafted and negotiated a complex set of contracts on behalf of the owner a $400M nickel/cobalt mine to be built in Cameroon, Africa. The project includes a unique leaching operation, power plant, ball mill and extraction facilities, and associated infrastructure such as roads, buildings and utilities.
Claims on behalf of the owner of a high-volume cheese-processing plant in Idaho ($500M per year in sales) which contracted for a state-of-the-art waste water treatment plant to be associated with the processing facility.
Drafting contracts for the expansion of a large food-processing plant in New Mexico ($500M per year in sales). The contracts contain elaborate performance specifications, liquidated damage provisions and schedule incentives, along with multiple mechanical completion, testing and startup operations.
Defense of an engineering firm against a $7M claim related to storm water drainage systems in a large residential subdivision. The subdivision, which encompassed over 1,000 acres, was created in rangeland with no prior meaningful services such that every aspect of the subdivision and the services necessary to support it were engineered from scratch.

Construction Litigation

Successfully defended the construction arm of a top-10 ENR engineering firm in a dispute with a subcontractor over $8.5M in extra work claims. After a two-week trial in Federal Court, the jury awarded only $150k in damages, while awarding our client approximately $1.5M.
Successfully defended a top-25 ENR engineering firm in a contract, standard of care, and overbilling dispute with a local water district. The District contended the error required an entirely new pump station, while the firm contended the problem was easily fixable. The District indeed replaced the pump station before trial, yet the jury awarded only the cost of the firm's easy repair (an amount that equaled approximately 3% of the District's claim). The jury handed down a complete defense verdict for the firm on the overbilling claim.