Every project is different, but certain legal issues are likely to come up on any given project. We help our clients anticipate and solve problems, protect their professional and financial interests, manage their risks, and resolve disputes reasonably and cost-effectively.

Pursuing the job
• Reviewing contract language in Requests For Proposals
• Dealing with public designer-selection and bid laws
• Satisfying inter-state registration requirements
• Considering joint ventures or other strategic alliances

Securing the job
• Negotiating the owner’s contract with the designer, contractor, construction manager, or design/builder (using AIA forms, owner-generated alternatives, or our own forms)
• Defining relations between design and production architects; setting up joint ventures
• Drafting contracts with subconsultants and subcontractors
• Anticipating problems and addressing dispute resolution, project partnering, and risk management

While the job proceeds
• Reviewing other contracts on the project as they may affect our clients
• Reviewing and negotiating forms of certificates to lenders, public agencies
• Advising on public bidding requirements, including the Massachusetts filed sub-bid laws
• Advising on major change order and additional services issues

If the job goes sour
• Resolving payment disputes
• Providing preliminary claim advice
• Dealing with insurers, sureties, lenders, and other interested parties
• Representing clients in negotiations and mediations
• Coordinating with claims counsel in arbitrations and lawsuits
• Protecting copyright and project credits

Working abroad
• Identifying and resolving professional registration and other international practice issues
• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating FIDIC and other international contract forms
• Dealing with tax treaties, currency exchange, and similar issues
• Designing and managing international dispute resolution procedures

We provide general counsel services to our design and construction clients, from the creation of a firm, through the challenges of growth, ownership transitions, and mergers and acquisitions. Our legal advice is accompanied by an understanding of the special considerations – business, professional, personal, and aesthetic – that affect design and construction firms and their principals and employees.

The new firm
• Choosing the form of entity: corporation, LLC, or partnership?
• Drafting and filing firm documents
• Assembling accountants, legal specialists, insurers, and other advisors

The growing firm
• Developing a strategy for inter-state registrations, setting up affiliates and subsidiaries
• Creating form contracts
• Advising on insurance and other risk management issues
• Formalizing employment agreements, policies, and benefits
• Maintaining internal governance records and governmental registrations

The evolving firm
• Addressing the full range of multiple issues related to ownership transitions to a new generation
• Advising on mergers, acquisitions, and break-ups

If our clients require legal advice in areas such as tax, ERISA, estate planning, or litigation, we arrange for cost-effective relationships with expert lawyers in other Boston-areas firms who specialize in each of these areas. We play the central role in meeting all of each client’s legal needs.

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