Construction
Our Construction Law Practice Group comprises skilled attorneys and advisors who have dedicated their careers to the construction industry. We anticipate both common and atypical challenges on all types of projects and proactively share proposed solutions with our clients.
With diverse professional and legal backgrounds, our team brings a depth of experience that enhances our ability to serve clients effectively. Our construction attorneys include a licensed architect, public sector representation experience and hands-on field construction experience. Our combined industry knowledge spans from the job site trailer to the boardroom, allowing us to provide well-rounded counsel.
Benesch’s Construction practice is recognized by Chambers®, and the firm is ranked nationally in Litigation-Construction and Construction Law by Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms.”
Project Counseling
We understand the construction industry inside and out, enabling us to match our clients' capabilities and goals with the right project delivery methods and risk management tools. Whether utilizing a traditional approach, construction management, design-build or EPC, we provide strategic guidance tailored to each method’s unique benefits.
Our team drafts contracts that align with clients’ needs and the precise project delivery systems. We clearly convey the risks inherent in today’s construction landscape, crafting contracts designed to mitigate these risks while considering evolving legal principles, regulatory changes and key industry trends. More than just advisors, we seamlessly integrate into project teams—providing leadership when needed and steady support when operations run smoothly.
We have successfully served as project counsel on billions of dollars in infrastructure and vertical construction projects worldwide, leaving our mark on skylines across the globe.
Our litigators are known throughout the construction industry for their well-deserved and impressive reputations and depth, as well as their breadth of skills throughout the construction industry. Benesch represents a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including contractors, owners, design professionals, private equity investors, lenders and insurers—both in the U.S. and globally.
We have extensive experience handling all types of construction disputes, including:
- Bid disputes
- Subsurface claims
- Constructive change orders
- Extra work claims
- Delay, disruption and interference claims
- Workmanship and product failure disputes
Our team has appeared in federal and state courts of claims, dispute review boards, boards of contract appeal and all recognized arbitration forums. Additionally, many of our attorneys serve as arbitrators, mediators and adjudicators, so we understand what it takes to effectively present and defend claims.
Efficient and Results-Driven Representation
Once a project is underway, we prioritize preventive strategies to avoid disputes before they escalate. Drawing on our deep experience in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), we resolve conflicts quickly and successfully.
Our attorneys are seasoned advocates and facilitators in mediation, arbitration, dispute review boards and litigation. We guide clients toward the most practical and economical and creative solutions while ensuring their interests are fully protected. When formal litigation cannot be avoided, we are tenacious and strategic litigators, committed to vigorously pursuing our clients’ objectives.
Our construction team represents the entire spectrum of construction industry participants and has deep government contacts and experience in key jurisdictions. Our clients include public and private and range from Fortune 500 companies to middle-market and emerging businesses, as well as public entities, joint ventures, consortiums and project teams.
With firsthand experience in every conceivable building category—including tunnels, bridges, roads, buildings and industrial facilities—we bring the same level of intensity and dedication to each project. From power plants, data centers, dams and refineries to sports complexes, highways, and residential developments and high-rise to low-rise, we deliver proactive, strategic counsel to navigate even the most complex construction challenges. Our years of experience in large, complicated cases allow us to address our client’s interests at the highest levels.
By partnering with us, clients gain a legal team that collaborates seamlessly to oversee construction matters from start to finish—cooperatively and interactively.
Construction Law Seminar Offerings
Experience
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Represented an ENR-ranked Midwest specialty contractor in a cross-border dispute over cost overruns and withheld payments on a steel manufacturing plant. The contractor significantly underbid the project due to misleading actions by the owner. Benesch re-baselined the schedule, developed a damage model and used an estoppel argument to secure a favorable settlement in fast-track arbitration.
- Represented a construction manager in the successful prosecution of an extra work, delay and disruption claim against a developer on a build to suit regional facility for the FBI. This representation culminated in a full recovery after a multi-week arbitration proceeding.
- Represented a private owner as project counsel in a successful $1.2 billion capital improvement program. The program involved two major facilities, four large facilities, a free-standing parking garage and ten medium facilities. This representation involved the use of design-build, construction manager at-risk and general contractor project delivery methodologies and the preparation, negotiation and monitoring of more than 800 separate contracts with project participants.
- Representing owners as project counsel on a $800 million iron ore processing facility and a $700 million waste to fuel facility.
- Representing a private owner as project counsel on a $300 million capital improvement program to rehabilitate and enlarge a corporate headquarters facility.
- Represented a national engineering firm as coverage counsel in a dispute with its errors and omissions insurer over the applicable insurance limits to be applied.
- Represented an Owner in the successful prosecution of multiple claims against the design professionals, construction manager and material suppliers for deficient paving, roofing and cladding systems.
- Represented a contractor in the successful, sequential prosecution of a significant delay and disruption claim against a public owner and its Engineer of Record on a lift bridge replacement project.
- Represented an interiors subcontractor in the successful prosecution of a delay and disruption claim involving a new hospital project in Statesboro, Georgia. This representation culminated in a very favorable award after a multi-week arbitration proceeding.
- Represented an electrical contractor in the successful prosecution of a $10 million wrongful termination and delay and disruption claim involving the installation of a new aluminum processing facility.
- Represented a public owner in the defense of a tunneling contractor’s $12 million breach of contract claim and the presentation of a counterclaim for the recapture of improperly billed time and material change orders. This representation culminated in the dismissal of the contractor’s claims and the recovery of almost $20 million for the client.
- Represented a construction manager in the successful prosecution of a repair cost claim against its subcontractors and insurer for defective workmanship.
- Represented an Owner in defending a $60 million extra work and delay claim raised by a contractor on an environmental remediation project. This dispute involved a ten-year performance period, millions of project documents and dozens of witnesses which culminated in a successful three-week arbitration hearing.
