LawArk

Design & Construction Transactional and Dispute Resolution

     Understanding design and construction transactional and dispute resolution matters requires understanding them as businesses, industries and their essential physical natures.  This requires specialized training and experience.  As a licensed architect who designed buildings, has hands-on construction experience, and who also taught building failure investigation and forensics as a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Illinois’s Graduate School of Architecture for over a decade, Mr. Cole uses his unique skills as both an architect and attorney to understand the physical and legal nature of design and construction matters. 

     This combination of skills often allows clients to realize significant costs savings in determining the strengths and weakness of their negotiations and disputes by saving time in analysis;  and, when necessary, by selecting the right type of expert to provide 0pinions, reports or testimony.   

     Mr. Cole is also a certified mediator and a proponent of alternative dispute resolution. 

 

Design & Construction Transactional Legal Services

- Owner-Architect/Engineer Agreements

- Owner-Contractor Agreements

- Subcontractor Agreements

- Contract/General & Supplemental Conditions Review

- Contract Risk Management Review

- State and Federal Accessibility Compliance & Report Review

- State and Federal Historic Preservation Regulatory Compliance Agreements

- Historic Rehabilitation/Restoration Agreements

- Consultant & Material Supplier Agreements

- Joint Venture Agreements

- Legal Entity Formation

 

Design & Construction Transactional Experience

     With an emphasis on clarity, completeness and risk management, Mr. Cole has prepared tightly-drafted, but fair design and construction contracts and service agreements for architects and engineers, property owners and developers, public entities, contractors, subcontractors  and consultants for a wide variety of residential, commercial, office and industrial projects including single-family homes and condominiums; shopping centers and other retail development; office and retail tenant build-outs; roadway development; industrial development projects both within the U.S and abroad for projects ranging from $1 million to $2.3 billion in project cost.  He has worked with a wide range of contract types including those produced by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC), and the Association of General Contractor (AGC), as well as many custom construction contracts. 

     Mr. Cole also specializes in providing contract and compliance review services for a wide range of design and construction matters, including those related to historic rehabilitation and accessibility matters for avoiding conflicts with state and federal enforcement agencies.

 

Litigation, Mediation and Dispute Resolution Legal Services

- Design and Construction Defects

- Contract Performance and Breach Issues

- Mechanics Liens

- Design, Construction, Accessibility and Historic Preservation Expert Witness

- Design and Construction Litigation Co-Counsel Consultation

- Expert Witness Selection and Vetting  

- State and Federal Accessibility Disputes

- Historic Rehabilitation/Restoration Disputes

- Mediation and Informal Dispute Resolution

- Payment and Fee Collection

 

Litigation, Mediation and Dispute Resolution Experience

     Mr. Cole uses his architect’s experience to quickly assess the strengths and weaknesses of design and construction disputes by examining construction drawings, specifications, project manuals and records, site inspections and expert forensics reports for construction defect, delays, contract breach and non-performance, and mechanics lien matters. 

     By using his training as both an architect and attorney to understand both the physical and legal nature of any construction issues, clients are often able to realize significant costs savings in determining the strengths and weakness of disputes. 

     As a licensed architect, a former Visiting Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois’s Graduate School of Architecture for over a decade and co-author of an Illinois legal treatise on Historic Preservation Law, Mr. Cole can also provide several types of expert witness services himself, as well as expert witness selection and vetting services.