You want to have protection
If you're a contractor or subcontractor, you want to make sure your interests are protected before you commit your company to construct a new office, apartment project, factory or retail store. The future of your business depends on successfully planning, bidding, and constructing the project and resolving any disputes that arise. You need to determine your budget, your schedule, and your risks.
You need Porter & Hedges
Equipped with a broad understanding of the construction process and experience on all sides of the table, Porter & Hedges lawyers can handle the most complex private or public development projects. We have represented the interests of prime contractors, public and private owners and developers, lenders, construction managers, subcontractors, architects and engineers, sureties, vendors and suppliers.
Our broad experience allows us to forge consensus among conflicting interests in this high intensity environment. Our lawyers combine a demonstrated track record in project management with extensive industry contacts to ensure that transactions are completed timely and disputes resolved.
Insurance matters for construction clients
Construction and insurance issues go hand in hand. Our lawyers assist owners, lenders, general contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers with a wide array of insurance issues ranging from drafting the insurance requirements in construction contracts on the front end to assisting with claims against insurers and litigating coverage cases should problems arise during or after construction. We have extensive experience in litigating coverage issues under all types of policies including builders risk, commercial property, environmental, commercial general liability and directors and officers.
Whether you need assistance with getting your insurance program in place or in dealing with insurance companies after a claim has been made, our lawyers can assist you with managing the multiple risks associated with construction projects.
Construction transactional work: Helping clients get the job done
Our lawyers emphasize careful negotiation and drafting of design agreements, construction contracts, construction management agreements, and loan documentation right from the start. Whenever necessary, we can draw upon the skills of colleagues in our firm to resolve tax, finance, real estate, insurance and environmental issues essential for project completion. Whether representing a real estate development firm in preparing construction contracts and related documents for a $140 million condo tower, or advising an architecture firm in drafting a family of design agreements for the use on the Internet by the owner, consultants and contractors, we can handle even the most complex contractual challenges.
Once the project is under way, we work with you to analyze and modify all project documents, including change orders, lien releases and key correspondence in order to protect the client. Thoroughness during the project will help ensure a successful resolution later.
Construction litigation: Resolving client disputes effectively
We represent contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, sureties, design professionals, construction managers and owners in resolving complex construction disputes. Our lawyers have extensive federal, state and administrative litigation and arbitration experience and resources to meet the needs of large national and multi-national corporations as well as those of small to mid-sized companies and individuals, from pre-litigation negotiation through appeal.
Since construction projects face the challenges of high risk and tight profit margins, we know that you can ill afford extensive litigation costs. Getting the best results for you is our prime consideration. We help you conduct business in ways that minimize the chance of you ending up in court or arbitration.
When the potential for a dispute arises, our lawyers work with senior management, project managers and estimators to analyze the issues involved, assess the paper trail from the pre-construction to completion phases, and map out legal alternatives and projected costs. Whether through litigation, mediation, arbitration or other alternative dispute resolution techniques, we pursue legal solutions that meet business objectives. In any dispute resolution proceeding we position you to prevail—determining the optimum, evidence, creating clear and compelling themes, and preparing direct and cross examination that best conveys your position to the fact-finder.
Some types of construction claims we handle:
- Delay, acceleration and inefficiency claims
- Defective plans and specifications
- Construction defect claims
- Payment and performance issues
- Wrongful termination
- Cost overrun and extra work claims
- Bond and lien claims
- Mass torts
- Surveying errors
- Insurance coverage
- Jobsite injury
- Professional fee disputes
- Differing site conditions
- Bid disputes
- Industrial and offshore claims
- Change order disputes
- Breach of contract
- Warranty issues
- Deceptive trade practices
- Fraud
Representative examples of the solutions we provide
- Defending a large chemical company against a $300 million fraud and breach of contract claim by one of the world's largest construction companies.
- Helping a general contractor recover a multimillion-dollar judgment against a national supplier/subcontractor for delay claims involving fraud, breach of contract and deceptive trade practices.
- Representation of a contractor in litigation with a defaulting subcontractor's surety regarding defective work in three power plants.
- Counseling sureties in the numerous takeover alternatives involved in completing multiple public and private projects, including the takeover of a defaulted general contractor on multiple public and private projects simultaneously.
- Representation of a large Houston general contractor in a lawsuit over whether severe differential foundation movement was caused by failure of architect and engineer to design building to accommodate the existing soil conditions or caused by construction defects of subcontractor.
- Working with contractors and sureties to prosecute extra work claims, delay claims and differing site conditions claims against various U.S. Governmental entities, from the Request for Equitable Adjustment stage through the Board of Contract Appeals.
- Successful recovery of delay and extra work claim for a subcontractor against the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
- Representation of oil and gas operating company in oil and gas accounting litigation.
- Representation of a large general contractor in a multi-million dollar AAA international arbitration involving a Kuwaiti subcontractor's claims for vehicles that were lost, damaged, and/or destroyed during the Restore Iraqi Oil Project. The venue for this arbitration was The Hague.
- Representation of a general contractor in a large AAA international arbitration involving the construction of a residential water well in Southern Iraq. The subcontractor claimed millions of dollars in damages consisting of extra work and equipment rental charges. The venue for this arbitration was London.
- Representation of a general contractor in a $38 million AAA domestic arbitration involving claims made by a Kuwaiti subcontractor for equipment damage. The general contractor asserted a counterclaim against the subcontractor for $50 million for conduct which prompted the U.S. government to disallow payments to the general contractor under the prime contract. The venue for this arbitration was Virginia.
Big money, business reputations and high-pressure competition are all at stake in construction projects. Porter & Hedges understands the issues from the perspective of all parties at the table. We realize that contractors, developers and owners each have their own interests, and focus on developing the right strategy to protect you and your investment.
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