Thomas O. Crist

Tom has deep and varied experience advising private equity firms and early stage companies who invest their time, experience, and capital in the Manufacturing, Architectural, Engineering, and Construction spaces. This includes, without limitation, federal contractors working domestically and abroad, groups and businesses that partner with investors in order to grow, transition leadership, or who develop their own technology and proprietary processes to expend their integrated platforms of value added services. Tom knows his way around job sites, shop floors, and board rooms. He spends more time each year working with Benesch’s Private Equity and 3iP Teams (Innovations, Information Technology, and Intellectual Property), the latter of which is comprised of attorneys and degreed engineers ranging from mechanical, civil, chemical, electrical, biomedical and aerospace, up to and including PhD’s.

Tom is a trial lawyer by training and routinely pursues and defends the gamut of claims and disputes to conclusion in courts and alternative dispute resolution forums in the Americas, UK, Canada, the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere. He draws upon meaningful experience gained by contributing on more and less-traditional projects, creative and one-off delivery methods and engineering advances. Notable projects include infrastructure, buildings and bases in austere environments including conflict regions in the Middle East and Africa, recovery and diesel hydrotreating units, exploration and drilling, hydrocrackers, peaking plants, and refineries as well as hydro, wind, solar, and waste to fuel, some of which have been the first of their kind.

Tom advises clients on matters related to delay, disruption, errors/omissions/defects, default and suspension/termination and limitations and sharing of liability on projects utilizing hard-money, EPC, EPCM, agency and at-risk CM, design-build, joint-ventures, LEAN, IPD and hybrids of most recognized delivery methods, as well as bonded projects in the U.S. and those secured by demand and performance based guarantees. As a service to firm clients, Tom and his teams offer preemptive training and lessons-learned evaluations for key clients across various industries specifically including competitive bidding, challenging awards, preparation of REAs and federal contracting writ large.

Throughout his career, Tom has also represented parties in specialized commercial disputes, those involving global manufacturers and service providers, company reputation and competition, and advises clients regarding internal investigations, actions brought under the Federal False Claims Act, and FCPA. He has been recognized for many years by Chambers USA and Best Lawyers in America as a Leading Lawyer in Construction Law/Litigation, ADR, and Commercial Litigation.

Tom is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) and acts as counsel or neutral on matters administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), The Dubai International Arbitration Center ("DIAC"), International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”), the London Court of International Arbitration (“LCIA”), Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration ("SCCA"), ad hoc and “Baseball” arbitrations and those held under the arbitration rules of the United Nations, Commission on International Trade Law (“UNCITRAL”). Tom is the Great Lakes Regional Director and a founding member of the Society of Construction Law’s North American Chapter, an engineering-centric international society of construction professionals headquartered in the UK. He is a Chapter Chair and board member of the CIArb's North American Chapter and is a member of its board of directors. Tom led the winning trial team in a corporate espionage/business tort matter that resulted in one of the largest federal district court judgments in U.S. history. Tom equally splits his time among counseling clients in practical disputes avoidance, bringing closure with adversaries who remain, and deciding disputes as a neutral.