Thelen LLP has one of the preeminent Construction practice in the United States. According to Chambers USA Client's Guide to America's Leading Lawyers for Business "This nationally and internationally renowned 'premier' construction powerhouse wins widespread respect, confidence and praise from both clients and competitors."
Our lawyers are fully experienced in representing clients from the initiation of projects and preparation of contract documents through dispute resolution, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and trial. We have worked on all types of construction projects, ranging from buildings to some of the largest infrastructure projects in the world.
Thelen's international Construction practice dates back to the era of tremendous international investment after World War II. Our international practice has grown steadily since then. Today, Thelen advises a large number of foreign, multinational, and American corporations, financial institutions, public bodies, and individuals on international transactional and litigation matters. Recent representations have involved Eurotunnel, the Aguaytia gas complex in Peru, the collapse of the Koror-Babeldaob Bridge in the Republic of Palau, the Jamnagar refinery complex in India, the government of Hong Kong, and the Korea Electric Power Corporation.
Each of Thelen's offices has an established construction contracts practice. Many of the principal partners in the construction group average more than 20 years of experience in the field, and a number enjoy national reputations for their work. We have the capability and depth to handle virtually any type of matter in any part of the world.
History
Thelen has a long history of providing legal services to clients in the construction industry dating back to the 1930s, when it became involved in what was then the largest construction project in the world: the Hoover Dam. The firm's attorneys represented the corporation that built the dam, Six Companies, Inc., which was organized by the predecessors of the Bechtel companies and the Kaiser interests, Utah Construction Co., Morrison-Knudsen Company, Inc., J.F. Shea Co., Inc., among others. Since the 1930s, our lawyers have played a central role in construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Bonneville Dam, Shasta Dam, and the second stage of Grand Coulee Dam. We have been involved in negotiating and documenting deals involving financing and construction all over the world. Our work has involved the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, infrastructure projects, nuclear and conventional power plants, factories and plants, transportation systems, pipelines, government projects, and buildings.
Construction practice group attorneys have broad experience representing public and private owners, engineering and design firms, and contractors and subcontractors, including some of the world's largest and most sophisticated builders. Thelen's responsibilities often extend to all stages of the project process, from contract negotiation and drafting, through counseling during construction, to dispute resolution. These responsibilities have included both domestic and international projects.
Other Disciplines
Construction lawyers frequently work with and draw upon the experience of our colleagues from the firm's practices in tax, transactional, project finance, environmental, real estate law, and in congressional and governmental agency relations. Our lawyers have developed a practice with deep understanding of insurance issues as they relate to the construction industry, and are experienced in the insurance, surety, and other risk management issues that often arise in construction projects. We have a large labor and employment law practice that has handled the full range of issues involving construction including unions, minority business enterprises, discrimination, immigration, and ERISA issues. Our lawyers have also assisted in mergers and acquisitions involving large construction and engineering companies, and in the protection of trade secrets and other intellectual property involved in the construction process.
Project Formation
In negotiating and documenting construction contracts, Thelen lawyers have worked with all of the major professional and industry forms, including those of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Associated General Contractors (AGC), the Engineers Joint Contracts Documents Committee (EJCDC), the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA), the Engineering Advancement Association of Japan (ENAA), and the Fédération Internationale des Ingénieurs-Conseils (FIDIC).
Our database enables us to provide clients with agreements for all construction needs, such as design-build contracts, construction management agreements, retention of design professionals, facilities management contracts, technical assistance agreements, loaned employee agreements, and agreements for the coordination of multiple prime contractor and fast track projects.
Our lawyers understand the range of delivery options, including design/build (D/B), design/build operate maintain (D/BOM), build-own-transfer (BOT), build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT), general contractor, construction manager (CM), program manager (PM), and engineer-procure-construct (EPC or turnkey), and the risks inherent in each. We are experienced in the related issues of bidding documents, completion guarantees, performance guarantees, construction lending, credit enhancement, mechanic's liens, and related remedies. Thelen's lawyers also appreciate the effect that public-private partnerships, privatization, international agencies, and lending institutions such as OPIC, the Export-Import Bank, and real estate development can have on the construction process, and have worked on a number of projects involving those issues. Colleagues in the firm's congressional and government agency relations practice often assist in fostering such business opportunities for clients, and with bidding and procurement issues.
Dispute Resolution
Thelen's attorneys have handled construction matters before all tiers of the state and federal court system, and before state and federal administrative agencies and contract appeals boards. We also have participated in construction arbitration proceedings of all types, including private and court-supervised, commercial and labor, and domestic and international.
We are an active member of the American Arbitration Association, the Center for Public Resources' Institute for Dispute Resolution, and the United States Council for International Business (the U.S. National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce). Thelen has participated with international and U.S. clients in many alternative dispute resolution proceedings, including mediations, dispute review boards, mini-trials, structured negotiations, and other forms of expedited process to resolve disputes efficiently at low cost. Our attorneys have significant experience with all of the issues that traditionally arise in construction disputes, including defects and claims for extra work. We have particular experience in delay and disruption issues, including actual and constructive acceleration and claims for lost labor and equipment productivity. Our attorneys regularly utilize sophisticated scheduling techniques, both to monitor and evaluate field construction while under way and to prepare and defend against formal claims for additional compensation, extensions of time, relief from imposition of liquidated or actual damages, and default termination. Thelen attorneys have extensive experience in the calculation of extended project costs and unallocated home-office overhead, utilizing the Eichleay and related formulas.
We have significant experience with claims arising from incomplete or defective design (warranty of specification suitability), inadequate and uncoordinated project management, excessive changes (cardinal change), impossibility and commercial impracticability, differing site conditions, slope and shoring failures and other soils-related problems, denial of site access, defective materials and equipment, improper inspection, failures of concrete and other structural elements, safety violations, rejection and repair of nonconforming work, inadequate crew-loading, environmental hazards, terminations for default and convenience, mechanic's liens, stop notices, payment and performance bonds (including federal Miller Act and state Little Miller Act bonds), and post-completion warranty issues.
Other Services
On February 28, 2000, our firm launched www.ConstructionWebLinks.com, a one-stop, comprehensive construction resource website. This site, the product of more than a year of research, evaluation, and compilation, brings together more than 6,000 sites of use or interest to the construction industry. From ConstructionWebLinks, one can check the status of a contractor's license, find projects out for bid, even compare equipment specifications. Since its launch, ConstructionWebLinks has received praise from users and the press as a unique and truly useful Internet resource. Our expanding Construction Law Library provides textbooks covering laws, codes, and regulations for the U.S., Guam, and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Our attorneys look forward to becoming the defining voice in construction law texts.
To learn more about Thelen's Construction practice, please contact the following:
John R. Heisse, II
San Francisco
Tel: 415.369.7225
jrheisse@thelen.com
Hartford Los Angeles New York Northern NJ San Francisco Shanghai Silicon Valley Washington, DC
Affiliated Sites
www.constructionweblinks.com |
www.technologylawupdate.com |
www.climatelawupdate.com
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