Construction

Practice Scope and Client Profile
Our attorneys serve a wide variety of clients: owners and developers; design professionals, including architects, engineers, and surveyors; contractors and subcontractors; insurers and sureties; financial institutions; municipal corporations and political subdivisions.

We routinely negotiate, draft and review contracts related to the improvement of real property. Such contracts include construction documents (owner/architect agreements, owner/construction manager agreements, owner/contractor agreements, contractor/subcontractor agreements) and construction financing documents (building loan agreements and mortgage-related instruments). We are frequently called upon to address issues associated with competitive bidding requirements, requests for proposals, project manuals, performance bonds, labor and material payment bonds, change orders, and all other documents necessary to permit construction projects to proceed in a timely manner and within cost estimates.

A significant portion of our practice involves representation of institutional owners. We are general counsel to Syracuse University and have assisted in negotiating construction management agreements and technical service (development) agreements with the New York State Urban Development Corporation for such major projects as the Carrier Dome and the Science and Technology Center. Other institutional clients within New York include Colgate University, Hamilton College, Hartwick College, Le Moyne College, and area school districts  DeRuyter, Jamesville-DeWitt, Ithaca City, Marcellus, Newfield, North Syracuse, Oxford and Westhill. We served as outside counsel to the County of Onondaga in the negotiation of its construction manager and architect agreements for construction of the Convention Center. In Florida, we have provided legal services to Seacrest Country Day School in the construction of its Resource Center and the negotiation of technical service agreements for its computer systems. Other Florida institutional clients include the Humane Society of Collier County and South Naples Professional Center. Our Florida offices also specialize in representing individual owners in the construction of substantial residential properties.

Contract Claims
Another aspect of our practice is the drafting and foreclosure of mechanics' liens and the enforcement or defense of construction claims through alternative dispute resolution such as mediation and/or arbitration, or through litigation. We file and enforce mechanics' liens for many of our contractor, subcontractor, and supplier clients. We recently obtained a $1.8 million directed verdict for a highway construction subcontractor against the general contractor and surety companies based on claims for extra work related to Interstate 81 improvements. We are currently engaged in various claims settlement and mechanic's lien defense/foreclosure proceedings for numerous clients.

Energy Performance Contracting
A subsidiary aspect of our practice is the negotiation and review of energy performance contracts for institutional clients. An energy performance contract involves the installation of energy saving improvements from lighting fixtures to cogeneration facilities, under which the cost of the improvements is financed with the savings in energy costs. These programs are offered to colleges, universities, schools and hospitals by the State of New York, private companies and utilities. We have examined energy performance contract issues for Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES, North Syracuse Central School District, Ithaca City School District, and the Olympic Regional Development Authority. We have established a line of communication with officials at the New York State Energy Resource Development Authority, which is, with the State Education Department, responsible for interpreting the Energy Law on energy performance contracts as they are implemented by public schools.