It takes a team with diverse skills to build something great.
This is certainly true in the Construction industry, in which developers, architects, contractors, subcontractors, and sureties come together to handle unique aspects of construction projects. To bring them together, complex contract negotiations set responsibilities, timelines, conditions, and consequences if terms are not met. Inevitably, in such a complex industry, there are also disputes that require timely resolution.
It also takes a legal team with diverse skills to understand the complexities of the Construction industry and to comprehensively represent the interests of various entities. Woods Oviatt Gilman applies our deep construction knowledge to provide quality legal services across a varied set of clients. From preparing AIA documents to setting up Employee Stock Ownership Plans to litigating complex, multi-litigant disputes, we’ve built something incredible over the decades…an unparalleled history of success with Construction clients of every size.
To find out more about our Construction team and its offerings, contact William E. Brueckner.
Examples of Representative Matters:
- Represented a general contractor against its surety in Federal District Court on claims that the insurance carrier wrongfully canceled a multi-million dollar bond program for the builder. Years of litigation resulted in a settlement before the damage portion of the trial, providing a $4.6 million recovery for the client.
- Successfully defended a seller of construction products at both the Illinois trial and appellate courts, defeating the plaintiff buyer in a Uniform Commercial Code "battle of the forms." http://caselaw.findlaw.com/il-court-of-appeals/1442128.html
- In a unique arrangement involving a cash-poor developer and a financially strong contractor, we represented the contractor after it agreed to post certain letters of credit that the developer needed as a condition to close its construction financing. In the first year after its completion, the developer's project did not generate the revenues it anticipated and the letters of credit were drawn down. On the contractor's behalf, we were awarded summary judgment for the full amount out the drawndown letters of credit, together with all the accrued interest – in excess of $500,000. After several further visits to the Court for judgment enforcement purposes, we were able to make our client whole and fully extracted it from the complicated relationship.
- In an interesting case involving 43-foot trusses springing free of their interior load-bearing points, we simultaneously conducted arbitrations against the contractor and the architect because of the uncertainty of the cause for this bizarre phenomenon (apparently due to lack of humidity in the roof). The arbitration against the architect, with a fellow architect as arbitrator, resulted in a full award, which was then used on a prize-winning repair of the truss system.
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