The members of the Bradley Arant Boult Cummings Construction & Procurement Practice Group have spent decades representing a broad range of construction industry clients around the country and the world, providing a wealth of practical, hands-on business and legal experience to develop solutions for the challenges our clients confront every day. From contract negotiation and bid preparation to project close-out and dispute resolution, our clients count on us to partner with them through every phase of a project to help make it a success.
We work with clients operating in all sectors of the construction industry, including general contractors, subcontractors, owners, developers, construction managers, architects, engineers, vendors, suppliers, lenders, insurers, and sureties. The firm represents five of the top 10 construction companies in the United States, as ranked by Engineering News-Record. Our clients’ projects include municipal buildings, high-rises, office buildings, condominiums and resort complexes, casinos, sports stadiums, residential developments, hospitals, schools, courthouses, airports, embassies, prisons, roads and highways, bridges, industrial plants, manufacturing plants and all types of power plants including coal, gas, nuclear, solar, wind and hydro. Our lawyers travel the globe advising clients on projects around the world. We have litigated and arbitrated cases and claims, and have advised on matters involving projects throughout the United States and internationally, including: Algeria, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, New Zealand, Nigeria, Nova Scotia, Panama, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey and Venezuela. We travel to meet our clients wherever their needs arise.
The attorneys in our Construction & Procurement Practice Group have spent years serving the industry. Many worked previously in the construction industry and have degrees in engineering and architecture. We also have attorneys who are Fellows in the prestigious American College of Construction Lawyers and who are listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA, and Super Lawyers. Our lawyers spend a significant amount of time on-site with our clients, engaging with them face-to-face on matters as they develop. As a result, they know their projects are in the hands of not just experienced attorneys, but seasoned industry professionals who truly understand their business, the issues they face and what is required for success.
We provide a wide range of services for construction clients that encompass all phases of domestic and international construction and procurement. This includes advice concerning selecting and drafting contracts for owners, general contractors, subcontractors, architects and other consultants. Our attorneys are well-versed regarding the major industry contract forms, including those for AIA, EJCDC, AGC (now Consensus Documents), DBIA and CMAA. We also provide guidance to clients negotiating contracts, auditing company compliance with federal procurement requirements, serving on an as-needed basis during contract administration, performing RFP review, implementing project administration and management procedures aimed at minimizing project claims and disputes, and assisting with project close-out. Our attorneys supervise numerous accident- and disaster-related investigations arising during the course of construction projects, assisting and interviewing witnesses, notifying the appropriate authorities, ensuring that any insurance carriers respond appropriately, and advising as to correct contractor, subcontractor, owner and designer relations with respect to accidents and disasters. We also advise our clients on a wide variety of labor and employment and immigration enforcement issues critical to the construction industry, including labor-management relations, union avoidance, NLRB matters, project labor agreements, Form I-9 and E-Verify Compliance, and equal employment opportunity issues. Drawing on the resources from the rest of the firm, we also assist clients in handling the many diverse challenges that confront the construction industry, including taxation issues, project finance issues, environmental matters, bankruptcy, intellectual property rights, zoning, interactions with governmental agencies, ERISA, issues relating to minority enterprises, and the full panoply of labor and employment issues.
Our attorneys strive to understand the particular businesses of our clients so that we can better tailor our advice to suit each client's specific needs. With experience, a thorough understanding of the law, and an appreciation for each client's needs, we help our clients fashion practical solutions to the challenges they confront daily. Our primary goal is to assist our clients in achieving successful projects. Often, we dispatch attorneys to confront and resolve a problem in the field the day it arises. We have found that a prompt, sensible response often averts protracted litigation, thereby keeping the project participants focused on the job at hand and minimizing the delays, costs, and disruption that accompany major construction litigation.
A significant amount of our work involves advising contractors regarding project administration. Our lawyers are familiar with the nuances and associated risks in the FAR and those additional risks associated with prime contracts, subcontracts, teaming agreements and other arrangements. We routinely represent clients in contract and program administration issues, often resolving matters at the “deck plate” level before they escalate into bigger issues. We also advise clients regarding suspensions, delays, impacts and termination issues.
When disputes arise, we offer a team of seasoned litigators who practice exclusively in the area of construction litigation and represent both plaintiffs and defendants. We work to secure resolutions for clients that allow them to achieve their business objectives. This includes providing a full range of alternative dispute resolution services, including mediation, arbitration, dispute review boards and structured negotiations. We have prevailed in arbitrations throughout the world. When a client’s business interests are best served by going to court, we provide experienced litigation counsel that draws on years spent representing clients before state and federal courts, state and federal administrative agencies and tribunals in foreign countries. The disputes we handle are as varied as our clients. Our litigators have extensive experience with construction claims, including defects, extra work, delay and disruption, acceleration, lost labor productivity and idle equipment. We have a thorough understanding of major scheduling techniques, and we understand how to calculate extended project costs and unallocated home-office overhead so that we can assist our clients in maximizing recovery on a delayed, suspended or terminated project. We have experience addressing design defects, cardinal changes, commercial impracticability, differing site conditions, access problems, over-zealous inspectors, structural failures, rejection of nonconforming work, suspensions, terminations, mechanics' liens, payment and performance bonds, insurance issues, performance guarantees, liquidated damages, and warranties.
Our attorneys have extensive experience and expertise representing government contractors in all aspects of government contracting and procurement. This includes federal, state and local projects, and involves bid advice, bid protests, project administration advice and claim prosecution. Our lawyers have substantial experience drafting, prosecuting and resolving claims related to government projects, including coordinating and liquidating multiple subcontractor pass-through claims. We have achieved numerous multi-million dollar recoveries on behalf of clients, including several recent multi-million dollar awards for contractors doing business with the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, Corps of Engineers, Department of State, and Department of Veterans Affairs, among others. Our lawyers have substantial experience advising clients during the project administration phase of a contract to avoid, if possible, having to file claims at all. When claims cannot be avoided, we assist with claim documentation, drafting, presentation and prosecution.
Our lawyers work as a team with each of our clients to develop and implement litigation strategies designed to achieve the client's goals. We practice in federal and state courts, before the Boards of Contract Appeals, in the United States Court of Federal Claims, and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the wide variety of disputes which arise between contractors and public entities as well as between contractors and their subcontractors.
Clients we have represented include:
- Alberici Corporation
- Ard Contracting, Inc.
- Balfour Beatty Construction, LLC (formerly Centex Construction)
- BD Welch Construction LLC
- BE&K, Inc.
- BE&K Construction Company, Inc.
- Beaver Construction Company
- Bechtel Corporation
- Beers Construction Company
- Bill Harbert International Construction Company
- Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC
- Caddell Construction Company, Inc.
- Capstone Development
- Balfour Beatty Construction, LLC
- CH2M Hill
- Champion International Corporation
- Chicago Bridge & Iron Company
- CIBA
- Clark Construction Group, LLC
- Cowin & Company, Inc.
- Cowin Equipment Company, Inc.
- Daniel Corporation
- Dansk Enternit A/S
- DE/TE Builders, Inc.
- Dick Corp.
- Dunn Construction Company, Inc.
- Edward Kraemer & Sons, Inc.
- Eichberg Construction, Inc.
- Ellard Construction
- Empire Pipe & Supply Company
- Energen Resources Corporation
- Energen Corporation
- Fibrowatt LLC
- FL Smidth Airtech, Inc.
- Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company
- Grunley Construction Company
- Gulf States Paper Corporation
- Hardaway Construction Company
- H. C. Blake Company
- H.C. Price Company
- H.J. Russell Corporation
- Harbert Management Corporation
- Harbert Corporation
- Hoar Construction, LLC
- Indianapolis Power & Light Company
- InDyne, Inc.
- J.S. Haren Company, Inc.
- J&S Construction Company
- Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.
- Jim Walter Resources, Inc.
- John J. Kirlin Ltd.
- Johnson Controls, Inc.
- Kraft Construction Company, Inc.
- Lincoln Builders, Inc.
- MAAG Gear AG
- Max Foote Construction Co., Inc.
- McCrory Building Company, Inc.
- McGoldrick Construction Company
- Mellor Engineering Corporation
- Metcalf Construction Company, Inc.
- Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority
- Metso Paper USA, Inc.
- Metso Power
- Moreland Corporation
- Moss & Associates
- N.A. Water Systems, LLC
- Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
- Pitt-Des Moines, Inc.
- Rand & Jones Enterprise Company
- Regions
- Reitmeyer & Associates
- Roy Anderson Corp.
- Shook & Fletcher Insulation Company
- Southern Ready Mix, Inc.
- Sparks Construction, Inc.
- Steel City Erection & Crane Rental Company, Inc.
- Stone & Webster Construction, Inc.
- SUEZ Energy
- Summit Contractors, Inc.
- Takota Corporation
- Taylor & Miree Construction, Inc.
- The AES Corporation
- The Garrison Barrett Group, Inc. Architects
- The Hanover Company
- The Mouat Company, Inc.
- The Parsons Corporation
- The Robins & Morton Group
- The Shaw Group
- TolTest, Inc.
- Tompkins Builders, Inc.
- Total-Western, Inc.
- Travelers/Aetna Commercial Lines Claims
- Trico Steel Company, L.L.C.
- Turner Construction Company
- U.S. Pipe & Foundry Company
- United Sheet Metal, Inc.
- United Skys, Inc.
- University Housing Services, Inc.
- USF&G
- Vulcan Materials Company
- Vulcan Group
- Wachovia
- Walt Disney Imagineering
- Walter Industries, Inc
- Walton Construction Company, LLC
- Willis Corroon Corporation
- Wunderlich-Malec Engineering Systems, Inc.
- Yates Construction Company, Inc.