Construction

WSHB has earned a national reputation for work on disputes involving residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental worksites. Representing public and private owners, contractors, lenders, design professionals, developers, joint ventures, and suppliers, we have handled every aspect of construction claims and risk management for clients in all forums, whether state or federal court, mediation or arbitration.

Public Contracting

We represent and advise public owners and general contractors in all facets of public-works construction pertaining to design-bid-build and design-build projects, including bid procurement, bid protests, substitution of contractors, contract drafting and negotiation, false claims handling, debarment and administrating hearings, liquidated damages, payment and performance disputes, and in contract compliance matters.

Payment Claims

We regularly advise and represent owners, general contractors and engineers in handling pre-claim matters and in litigation involving mechanic's liens, stop notices, and bond claims pertaining to public and private-works projects.

Construction Defect Litigation

We represent developers, joint ventures, lenders and general contractors in all aspects of construction-defect litigation. Our experience includes defense of claims involving commercial, residential, industrial, government municipal and high-rise developments. Hand in hand with this defense, we vigorously pursue all possible options for transferring risk to third parties to reduce exposure, while providing creative, thoughtful solutions to complex construction-defect claims.

Delay, Disruption and Acceleration Claims

We represent owners and contractors in prosecuting and defending critical path delay, disruption and acceleration claims in residential, commercial, and public projects.

Construction Site Injuries

We represent owners, lessors and general contractors in defense of construction site injuries, ranging from trip-and-fall claims to catastrophic injuries and wrongful death claims.

Green Building

We assist clients in the process of obtaining LEED certification with the United States Green Building Council, drafting appropriate contractual provisions, and meeting mandatory state and local sustainability requirements.

Change-Order Disputes

Our lawyers regularly represent owners (public and private), general contractors, engineers, subcontractors and suppliers in prosecuting and defending change-order disputes.

Owner-Controlled Insurance Programs (OCIP)

We assist insurance carriers, owners and general contractors on public and private projects with administering owner-controlled insurance programs.

Builder's Risk Claims

We represent owners and contractors in submitting, reviewing and administering builder's risk claims on public and private projects and resolving disputes regarding such claims.

Project Administration

We represent owners in drafting and preparing all necessary contract documentation and providing contract administration throughout the construction process.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

We advise and represent construction clients in all forms of alternative dispute resolution, including mediation, arbitration, mini-trials and judicial reference.

Appellate

We represent construction clients in both state and federal appellate courts responding to appeals and challenging lower-court decisions.

• When a contract for the construction of a mixed-use development was terminated by the owner, who then refused to pay the amounts set forth in the parties’ agreement, our client, a general contractor, turned to us for help. We initiated arbitration proceedings against the owner and demonstrated that the contract had been terminated for convenience, not for cause, as alleged by the owner. An arbitration award of over $750,000 was entered in favor of our client. We then had the award reduced to a judgment, obtained a Court order requiring that rental payments owed by third parties to the owner be made to our client instead and used those payments to satisfy the judgment we had obtained.
• 129 homeowners sued our client, a major homebuilder, alleging a variety of construction defects in their newly built homes. Our client’s subcontracts provided that the subcontractors were to indemnify our client and to provide a defense on its behalf. To enforce these rights, we were required to cross-complain against more than fifty subcontractors. Those efforts paid off. After extensive litigation, this matter settled for $2.1 million. Our client paid just $21,000 of the settlement, and its entire defense was paid for by its subcontractors and their insurance carriers.
• An apartment owner sued a developer for construction defects and business losses arising from the alleged faulty construction of an apartment complex. We represented a target third party who had performed all drainage and landscaping on the development. The plaintiff and his experts contended that our client’s work had caused in excess of $1 million in damages. Following four months of trial, the jury returned a defense verdict for our client.

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