Laurie & Brennan, LLP, a select team of highly skilled attorneys, provides the highest level of comprehensive legal representation in the construction industry. Founded in 2010 by partners Ty Laurie and Dan Brennan, the Chicago-based construction law firm offers large firm expertise at more affordable rates. Ty Laurie and Dan Brennan, who combined have almost 50 years of experience in construction law, founded Laurie & Brennan LLP in order to provide clients with a wide array of construction law experience and knowledge in a hands-on, small firm environment.
The firm’s attorneys provide comprehensive construction law representation to owners, developers, contractors, subcontractors, architects, engineers, and other construction industry professionals. Our projects have included Soldier Field, Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago , The Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, and One World Trade Center in New York City to name a few.
Project Delivery and Procurement • Dispute Avoidance • Dispute Resolution •
Significant Representations • High Profile Projects • Government Contracts Disputes
Project Delivery and Procurement
Project Delivery Method
One of your first decisions will be the form of delivery for your project, and we offer legal advice to help you make that decision. We will advise you on all types of delivery methods, including design/build, construction management, multi-prime, and fast-track. After choosing a method, we negotiate the contracts and provide advice on such elements as change order management, construction delays, design defects, mechanics liens, warranty issues, insurance procurement, project labor agreements, default and insolvency, and government requirements (including the Americans with Disabilities Act).
Risk Allocation
Critical in the contract negotiation phase is maximizing the protection of your interests, evaluating appropriate insurance coverage, and allocating risk as appropriate while balancing the cost of risk shifting. To accomplish this, we will discuss issues with you such as the responsibilities of each party, timing, documentation, expenses, basic and additional services, warranties, costs estimates, site visits, differing site conditions, default and termination, safety issues, indemnification, payment, and dispute resolution.
Teamwork
We help clients create a team environment. Crafting a contract that encourages teamwork among participants helps avoid disputes during your project. Although problems will occur on complex projects, a team environment encourages a cooperative rather than adversarial response. A positive environment maximizes the possibility that you will spend less time and money engaged in disputes with team members or umpiring the disputes of others. We focus on dispute avoidance and resolution know-how to create team environments that encourage problem solving rather than litigation.
Creative use of dispute resolution clauses creates yet more options for resolving a dispute economically and avoiding litigation. Because our experience in alternative dispute resolution includes both advocating for clients and serving as neutrals, we understand the process and bring a broad perspective and depth of experience to any dispute you may encounter.
Dispute Avoidance
Dispute Avoidance – Managing Conflict
Within the framework of the contracts, we will support the client and its team in handling questions that arise in the field during construction projects relative to change orders, potential construction defaults, defective work and delays. Our participation can be as much or as little as our client desires. We have been at the job site three times a week negotiating change orders, creating acceleration plans and participating in jobsite meetings. Conversely, we have been retained to respond quickly to jobsite queries over the phone. Usually any partner can answer questions when the other is unavailable. Our counsel emphasizes dispute and claims avoidance. By solving disputes before they become official claims, we help our clients save money, time, and aggravation. We understand that the owners are focused on a goal of building their project on time, within budget and to the requisite quality. Laurie & Brennan shares that same focus and assists its clients in achieving their goals.
We understand the need to act as part of a team when attempting to resolve brewing disputes at the jobsite. We balance the several competing interests prevalent between owner, contractor and design professional and provide advice on how best to achieve your goals in light of these competing interests. Many of the significant representations listed below include our Dispute Avoidance services.
Dispute Resolution – Our Role as Your Advocate
Our approach with respect to dispute resolution is to develop a strategy that will enable you to achieve the results you want in the most cost-effective manner possible. Although we place a strong emphasis on litigation avoidance services, we regularly try cases and are well versed in alternative dispute resolution. If settlement does not occur, the experienced litigators at Laurie & Brennan will litigate on your behalf.
We will provide the experienced advocacy you need. We aggressively litigate cases in state and federal courts throughout the country. We have also participated in hundreds of mediations and arbitrations involving all kinds of design and construction disputes. Further, Ty Laurie is a certified mediator and arbitrator who has acted as a neutral for over 15 years. Indeed, who better to advocate on your behalf than a certified mediator and arbitrator who conducts construction mediations and arbitrations all over the country?
A significant number of our clients use our services solely for resolving disputes. We have successfully tried to verdict or award countless construction claims and litigated the substantive construction issues that arise in construction projects. We prosecute and defend cases of all sizes, including substantial, multi-faceted, multi-million dollar litigation for some of the world’s leading companies. We have handled multi-million dollar disputes for both plaintiffs and defendants, including claims for defective design, breach of contract, changes in the work, wrongful termination, construction defects, acceleration and delay, and property damage allegedly caused by construction defects. In addition, we prosecute and defend claims regarding payment and performance bonds, building code violations, construction failures, mold-damaged construction, warranty and workmanship disputes, HVAC deficiencies, electrical errors, curtain wall errors, and turbine generator deficiencies.
Significant Representations
Dispute Avoidance and Dispute Resolution
Laurie & Brennan, LLP provides comprehensive legal representation with respect to major local, regional, national, and international construction projects. Brief descriptions of just a few projects follow.
Soldier Field Stadium
Members of our firm represented the developer, Chicago Bears Stadium, LLC, in the $606 million renovation of Soldier Field, a historic sports and entertainment venue and a Chicago landmark. Built as a war memorial in the 1920s, Soldier Field hosts the Chicago Bears, rock concerts, professional soccer games, college football, and other major civic and cultural events. Even though some proclaimed it next to impossible, approximately $500 million in hard construction costs were expended on a very difficult site in merely 20 months to deliver to the people of Chicago an on-time project. The project includes a new 61,500-seat stadium built within the existing historic ring and original classic colonnades of Soldier Field; a 2,300-space underground parking deck; and more than $90 million in parkland, parking, and other infrastructure improvements.
Our partners prepared and negotiated all the contracts for the developer, procured a unique insurance program to mitigate some of the many risks, and assisted site personnel with the monitoring of construction.
Our partners also represented the developer in a complicated construction claim. The developer made claims against the design professional team for acceleration costs and other damages caused by late and uncoordinated drawings. In addition, our partners assisted in the prosecution of claims dealing with HVAC deficiencies and plumbing and mechanical problems. Among other things, our attorneys investigated and successfully resolved claims dealing with frozen pipes due to inadequate heat tracing and redesign of certain mechanical systems due to an error in code interpretation. The project risk management program included project-specific professional liability insurance. The delay and acceleration claims against the design professional teams were asserted while the project was still ongoing, resulting in a very large mediated settlement approximately three months after the facility was opened.
Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia PA
Our lawyers represented the Philadelphia Eagles in a $35 million claim against its contractor and design team that built Lincoln Financial Field in the heart of Philadelphia. The suit involved numerous design and construction errors involving several testifying experts. The matter was resolved in mediation for a significant payment to the Eagles.
New Jersey Devils
Our lawyers currently represent the New Jersey Devils in a complicated design error claim involving the Devil’s new arena in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils have made almost $20 million in claims against the design professional team who designed their new stadium for costs and other damages caused by design errors and omission
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Arlington International Racecourse
Our attorneys represented the well-known owner of a signature horse racing venue regarding a complex delay claim for $30 million against a design professional. The owner claimed acceleration and delay damages resulting from the design professional’s delayed delivery of construction documents and defects in certain of the mechanical systems. This facility included extensive food service operations with mechanical systems that were improperly designed and required significant costs to correct. The acceleration and delay damage calculation for the client broke new ground; in essence, the claim involved the preparation of 80 separate acceleration claims. The mediation to resolve the dispute resulted in a settlement and a significant payment to the client.
High-end Residential Cost - Evanston, Illinois
 We represent Harold O. Schulz Co., Inc., a contractor specializing in high-end residential construction that can be seen from Lake Forest to downtown Chicago and in numerous Architectural Digest features. We provide construction legal services for all Schulz construction projects, including responding to bids and proposals; advising on bonding and insurance coverage issues and safety programs; negotiating and drafting contracts with owners, architects, and subcontractors; assisting with project close-out procedures, and advising on mechanics lien issues and other claims. We also developed contract forms for Schulz for smaller projects and periodically review and assess the company’s procedures and legal needs in terms of construction law.
Life and Science Building
We represented Midwesco, Inc., a large mechanical subcontractor located just outside of Chicago, in the prosecution of its claims against a national mechanical engineering firm caused by the engineer’s failure to provide Midwesco and its subcontractors with a set of buildable plans to construct the mechanical system at a life sciences building located on the campus of Northwestern University. As a result of our attorneys’ strategy, Midwesco obtained a very favorable settlement not only from the mechanical engineer, but also from the owner, contractor and architect.
Electric Power Facility
Our attorneys represented a national power generation and development company in a dispute with its general contractor and corporate guarantors relating to cost overruns and delays in construction of a $260 million electric power generating facility in Kendall County, Illinois. This matter involved an EPC contract with $50 million in claimed cost overruns by the general contractor and counterclaims of delay damages in completion and commissioning service by our client, triggering guaranty obligations by various joint venture partners. The dispute was litigated as an adversary proceeding as part of the Enron bankruptcy claims, resulting in a significant settlement in favor of our client.
Three Multi-Megawatt Facilities
Our attorneys successfully represented an EPC contractor of three wood chip-to-energy power plants in Ohio and Michigan. The design builder did not achieve the contract’s performance guarantees and sued the turbine manufacturer for providing deficient turbines. The manufacturer vigorously defended the multi-million dollar lawsuit. After several depositions, our attorneys, along with our hired experts, proved that erroneous calculations by the turbine manufacturer caused the deficiency. The case settled very favorably for our client.
Waste-Tires-To-Energy Plant
Our lawyers represented a large Midwestern utility that, through a separate company, developed a waste-tires-to-energy plant in Wolverhampton, England. The case involved litigation in federal court in Michigan and Illinois and a related proceeding in London, England. No limitation of liability was involved in that case but claims were made against the engineering and construction firms relating to their investigation and affirmation of a novel combustion technology to process tires into steam to generate electricity. One of the key claims involved allegations of fraudulent misrepresentation by the engineer at a key meeting with the owner regarding the viability of the project. After substantial discovery and extensive dispositive motions by the defense (which were defeated), the case was settled through mediation on favorable terms for the client.
Aux Sable Liquid Products Plant
We currently represent the owner of a liquid natural gas plant pursuing claims arising from the design and construction of the plant. The Midwestern plant is the terminus of a major natural gas pipeline originating in northern Canada. The plant processes liquids from the natural gas stream for resale to industrial customers. The claim seeks damages consisting of excess costs paid to trade contractors for overtime, loss of productivity, extended general conditions, lost profits, and repair costs due to late, incomplete, and defective construction documents.
Missouri Utility
Our lawyers represented a large Missouri utility in regards to the rebuild of a hydro-electric facility that experienced a catastrophic failure. Our lawyers provided the utility behind-the-scenes advice regarding the target price construction contract that it had entered into with the contracting team to rebuild the project. The project experienced several delays and cost overruns, and our advice centered on those issues.
High Profile Projects
Project Delivery and Procurement
World Trade Center Reconstruction
Our lawyers represented The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site. Our work included preparing and negotiating critical construction management, design, and trade contracts for One World Trade Center. It also included preparing complicated development and other cost-sharing agreements for aspects of the development. In addition, our lawyers have effectively advised The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on potential claims to assist in its risk management efforts.
Children’s Memorial Hospital
We represent Children's Memorial Hospital in development, design and construction of its new Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, a project budgeted at more than $600 million for construction and scheduled to be completed in late 2011. We drafted the agreements with the architect and construction manager as well as the consulting agreements for a variety of disciplines, and counseled the hospital in procurement of an owner-controlled insurance program. We are providing ongoing services for the project in connnection with issues that arise during construction.
The Spire
Our lawyers worked with Shelbourne Development on project structuring, contracts and insurance issues for the proposed Spire, a 150-story residential tower to be located on the north bank of the Chicago River alongside Lake Shore Drive.
Nestle USA, Inc.
Our lawyers represent Nestle USA, Inc. in revising all of its design and construction forms for all of its commercial and industrial facilities in various locations throughout the United States. This effort led to a training program for employees on the new forms.
Sears
Our lawyers represented a national retailer based in the Chicago area in revising all of its design, construction and procurement forms for all of its retail and logistics facilities. That effort led to a training program for employees on the new forms held at various locations throughout the country. We also represented this retailer in connection with a national, comprehensive survey of its facilities of compliance with various laws relating to accessibility for persons with disabilities. We also represented the client in various lawsuits relating to construction disputes at its various facilities.
Mandalay Baseball Properties
Our lawyers represent an owner of a professional baseball stadium in Texas against a nationally-known architectural firm for errors and omissions claims involving several problems at the stadium. Remedial work has been performed in most cases and the suit claims repair costs amongst other damages.
Elysian Hotel
Our lawyers prepared the construction contracts and have advised the owner/developer on several cost overrun and delay issues regarding the construction of one of the only 5-star hotels and private residences in Chicago. This 59-story structure in the heart of the Gold Coast of Chicago is a one-of-a-kind high rise with a first-class spa, grand stair case, top-notch finishes and other unique characteristics. We continue to advise the owner regarding various potential and actual claims involving defective work, design errors, and delays.
High-End Urban Hotel
Our lawyers supervised the negotiations of the design and construction agreements for a high-end downtown hotel with several unique design features including an outdoor rooftop bar. That representation also included advising the owner during the course of construction regarding several problematic construction issues. As a result, the owner avoided filing any construction claims or having any construction claims filed against it.
Mixed Use – Residential and Retail
Our lawyers have represented numerous clients in developing project delivery approaches and contracts for mixed use projects in various locations throughout the U.S. These projects include Sherman Plaza in Evanston, the Market Common in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and others throughout the Chicagoland area.
Senior Housing
Our lawyers have represented multiple owners and developers of continuing care retirement centers. These representations have included the drafting and negotiation of design and construction contracts as well as counseling clients on risk management issues including insurance related matters. We are currently representing a client in connection with the close-out of a contract for such a facility and dealing with various builder’s risk issues and mechanic’s lien issues.
Health Care Village and Hotel
Our lawyers represented Metropolitan Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the development, design, and construction of a new and unique health care village that will include a replacement hospital, medical office building, health and fitness center, hotel, restaurants, and commercial and other health care related uses. Other possible structures include facilities for elder care, dental offices, a nursing home, a vision center, a daycare facility, a respite care center, a pharmacy, or a medical supplies store. The Grand Rapids hospital is being relocated to 160 acres of open land in Wyoming, Michigan, to deliver health care to all of Western Michigan in what has been called a “futurist vision.” We are negotiating all of the construction contracts, including the agreement with the commercial developer, and advising the owner on insurance programs to assist in mitigating the construction risks.
Medical Office Buildings
We represented an orthopaedic practice group in connection with the development, design and construction of a medical office building that was the first phase of a massive capital development program on the medical district on the near west side of Chicago. That representation included negotiating a development agreement with a hospital, negotiating the design and construction contracts, counseling the client in connection with cost sharing and related issues with the hospital, and the closing and post-closing issues.
Government Contracts Disputes
Wrongful Termination
We successfully negotiated settlements on behalf of the Illinois Capital Development Board, the construction management agency for construction and renovation of Illinois state government buildings and facilities, with contractors arising out of construction work performed at Illinois correctional facilities. The contractors alleged that the Illinois Capital Development Board wrongfully terminated the contractors after partially completing the construction of the correctional facilities. In resolving the disputes for our client, we asserted that the Illinois Capital Development Board had terminated the contractors for convenience, using the Federal Acquisition Regulation on termination for convenience to support our arguments. As a result, the parties were able to settle the lawsuits filed by the contractors.
Defective Work
We were asked by a developer/contractor client to resolve a dispute and help close out the construction of a multi-unit public housing development in the City of Chicago. After a series of intense negotiations, we developed a joint remediation plan that required the collaboration and participation of all interested parties. As a result, the residents dismissed their lawsuits and all parties worked together to remedy the alleged defects.
We represented a developer in its high-profile dispute with the CTA regarding payment for the infrastructure work for the CTA to open an express train station with high-speed service to Midway and O'Hare airports. We successfully negotiated a settlement agreement with the CTA. The settlement agreement’s terms are confidential.
We currently represent Perma-Pipe, Inc., the largest manufacturer of pre-insulated piping systems in North America, in its dispute with the Ohio State University, among other parties, regarding the cause of a failed steam pipe suspended under the Woody Hayes Bridge after one year of operation. Litigation is currently pending in state court in Ohio.
Our lawyers represented the manufacturer and supplier of double walled fuel containment pipe in a dispute with a mechanical contractor over alleged leaks in the pipe that was installed at an air national guard base in Mississippi. The case was litigated in federal court in Mississippi and it involved depositions of contracting officers and investigation of certain issues under federal procurement law. The claim alleged damages to remove runway concrete, re-excavate, repair and replace leaking joints in the pipe.
Our lawyers represented the manufacturer and supplier of double walled FRP pipe for district heating in a dispute with a mechanical contractor over alleged leaks in the pipe that was installed at an Air Force base in Alaska. The case was litigated in federal court in Alaska. The claim alleged damages to re-excavate, repair and replace leaking joints in the pipe. The case was resolved through mediation.
Bid Protests
We successfully defended a general contractor in a bid protest for a public construction project before the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Arizona State Transportation Board. In this case, the second lowest responsible bidder protested the award of a $22 million highway project to our client, arguing that our client had failed to abide by the state’s bidding regulations and was therefore rendered a non-responsible and non-responsive bidder. We relied on the state procurement code, the state’s standard specifications, and other regulations to overcome these allegations and convince the state transportation board to award the contract to our client.
We have also assisted our clients in protesting the award of public construction contracts to other parties. For example, we initiated a bid protest to prevent the New Mexico Department of Transportation from awarding a $39 million highway construction project to another general contractor, despite our client’s apparent status as the lowest responsible bidder. Due to the involvement of federal funds, this matter required knowledge and application of both federal regulations and legislation, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and state rules and regulations. This dispute is currently pending in the New Mexico state court system.
False Claims Act
We successfully represented a New Jersey specialty contractor in a wrongful termination and delay dispute with the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. The litigation was pending in the district court for the 7th Circuit of Illinois and was resolved in a settlement conference on the eve of trial.
We successfully represented a California real estate developer in a dispute with its general contractor relating to cost overruns, delay damages and potential violations of the California False Claims Act in the construction of various public improvements, including a water main line for a 3000 + unit residential development.
Prevailing Wages
Our lawyers represented a local housing authority in an administrative proceeding to debar a masonry subcontractor who falsified payrolls and violated Davis-Bacon regulations. The contractor was debarred and this proceeding was the first of its kind for the authority and established precedents for future, similar proceedings.
ADA
A not-for-profit organization filed a lawsuit on behalf of several disabled residents of the public housing development claiming construction defects and failure to comply with ADA standards. The developer requested that we negotiate a settlement between the Chicago Housing Authority, Habitat for Humanity, the non-profit organization and the architect that would dismiss the lawsuits and close out the construction contract. After a series of intense negotiations, we developed a joint remediation plan that required the collaboration and participation of all interested parties. As a result, the residents dismissed their lawsuits and all parties worked together to remedy the alleged defects.
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