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Practice/Industry Group Overview
Gardere’s Construction Industry Team melds our traditional construction lawyers with other specialty practices in order to serve the legal needs of the construction industry. From contracts and risk management to complex construction disputes, the Construction Industry Team provides the full range of services needed by those involved with the construction industry:
Commercial Construction
Given the complexity of managing multiple parties at differing levels in combination with the uncertainties associated with weather, project delays, subcontractor default, and state and federal regulatory issues, contractors and owners must carefully minimize risks associated with any construction project. Our lawyers are committed to creating and implementing front-end policies and programs to reduce uncertainty and limit risk.
Residential Construction
Large homebuilding companies face the same issues as commercial builders. However, they must also address the challenges associated with operating large public and private companies that interact on a daily basis with consumers and consumer organizations that may be inflamed by a particular issue. Members of the Team handle many of these issues and coordinate directly with lawyers that have specific expertise in representing larger national and regional homebuilders.
Government Construction
Construction contracts with federal, state, and local governments present special issues of sovereignty, authority, performance, claims, and remedies that are not present in private sector contracts. Our lawyers have extensive experience dealing with these issues involving contracts at all levels of government and represent both contractors and government entities in these matters.
Construction Services:
Transactional
Our lawyers have a broad range of experience with many types of business transactions. This includes buying and selling construction companies, preparing appropriate contract documents and consulting on alternative delivery systems.
Litigation
Over the past 30 years, our lawyers have mediated, arbitrated, and litigated for contractors, volume homebuilders, public and private owners, developers and specialty subcontractors on disputes throughout the United States, Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe and Southeast Asia.
Legislative Initiatives
Our lawyers have organized and coordinated multiple legislative initiatives (both state and federal) to both promote and oppose issues of concern to contractors and builders. In addition, we have been retained by construction trade organizations to help promote new nationwide construction arbitration rules, restructuring of the regulatory framework for contractors in Texas, opposing restrictions on contingent payment clauses and expanding insurance coverage for construction defects.
Affiliations
Members of the Group are actively involved in numerous legal and industry associations including the ABA Forum on the Construction Industry, State Bar of Texas Construction Law Section, Associated General Contractors of America, Associated Builders and Contractors, Texas Association of Builders, and National Association of Home Builders. Our lawyers also represent several of these trade organizations in legislative, regulatory and amicus initiatives.
Representative Matters
The Group has represented clients on projects involving such things as manufacturing facilities, planned residential developments and subdivisions, clean rooms, power plants, LNG regasification terminals, roads and bridges, public facilities, light rail, wastewater treatment facilities, hotels, casinos, warehouses, malls, strip centers, jails and prisons, underground utilities, high-rise buildings, campus parks, libraries, laboratories, postal facilities, waste remediation, and numerous other types of commercial and residential projects.
Transactional Matters:
Policies and Procedures
The Construction Team has drafted numerous master construction and development contracts, risk management policies, and other associated policy and procedure documents that are currently being used on a company-wide basis for several national clients. In addition, our lawyers have prepared written policies and programs for our construction clients addressing issues such as workplace safety, mechanic’s liens, OSHA compliance, Fair Housing compliance, disclosure of offsite conditions, water management (mold) protocols, storm water regulatory compliance, payment and performance bond programs, and insurance programs.
Technology
The Group has created wealth for clients by negotiating and implementing programs by selling intellectual property and technology rights on the front end with post-completion revenue rights. We also manage the international copyright and trademark programs for several publicly traded construction companies.
Corporate Reorganization
In the past two years, the Group was involved in the purchase and sale of nineteen construction companies located across the United States, the restructuring of a national homebuilder’s corporate organization and forming a captive risk retention insurance company.
Contracts
Our construction lawyers have negotiated and drafted both residential and commercial construction contracts for projects across the United States and around the world. In 2002, construction contract forms created by the Group have been utilized in both commercial and residential construction projects from Hawaii to Maine, and Florida to California.
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