Fairfield Connecticut Building Expert Directory

Big Data Meets Big Green: Data Centers and Carbon Removal Compete for Zero-Emission Energy

October 15, 2024 — Robert A. James, Sidney L. Fowler & Ashleigh Myers - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real Estate Law Blog
Artificial intelligence, data centers, carbon removal and zero-emission power may sound like a winning line (plus the Free Space) on a 2024 Buzzword Bingo card. But the concepts have come into dramatic real-world tension as private and public actors seek to accommodate the digital and environmental imperatives for green energy. After years of fairly stable demand, punctuated by declines during the pandemic and economic slumps, electricity demand is projected to double by 2050. A principal cause is the rapid expansion in the power needed to energize and cool servers amid explosive growth in the number and size of data centers, crypto miners, and other point sources of computation. Data centers were 3% of U.S. demand and are projected to be up to 9% or more by 2030; AI will drive a 160% surge in data center demand by 2030. A commentator notes, “We haven’t seen [growth like] this in a generation.” Reprinted courtesy of Robert A. James, Pillsbury, Sidney L. Fowler, Pillsbury and Ashleigh Myers, Pillsbury Mr. James may be contacted at rob.james@pillsburylaw.com Mr. Fowler may be contacted at sidney.fowler@pillsburylaw.com Ms. Myers may be contacted at ashleigh.myers@pillsburylaw.com Read the court decision
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California’s Labor Enforcement Task Force Continues to Set Fire to the Underground Economy

February 16, 2016 — Evelin Y. Bailey – California Construction Law Blog
If you’re a fan of the Hunger Games trilogy, either the books or the movies, you’re likely familiar with “The Hob,” the black market in District 12 where people buy and sell banned items. It’s where bow-wielding protagonist Katniss Everdeen and her childhood friend Gale Hawthorne sell their poached game and where, in the movie but not the book (what can we say, we’re fans), Katniss obtains the “mockingjay” pin which she is later associated with. While The Hob is largely ignored by soldiers of the totalitarian “Capitol,” in the third book Catching Fire, the Hob is reduced to a pile of rubbish and ash by the Capital as an example to punish the insurrectionists led by Katniss. The Labor Enforcement Task Force (LETF), a joint task force composed of several of California’s agencies including the Contractors State License Board, Department of Industrial Relations and Employment Development Department is also setting fire, at least figuratively, to California’s underground economy. See our earlier post Joint Labor Task Force Targets Underground Economy for further background on LETF. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Evelin Y. Bailey, Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP
Ms. Bailey may be contacted at ebailey@wendel.com

The G2G Year in Review: 2020

January 18, 2021 — Pillsbury's Construction & Real Estate Law Team - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real Estate Law Blog
As we say goodbye to 2020, we wanted to share our top five most-read articles of 2020 from Gravel2Gavel. The most-read blog posts covered real estate and construction industry trends ranging from proptech trends like blockchain tokenization to COVID-specific rent carveouts and management disclosures to trends and market updates. Our posts provided deep industry insight and summarized hot topics that addressed the legal implications and disruptions that affected the market. Our 2020 roundup:

Blockchain-Based Tokenization of Commercial Real Estate by Josh Morton and Matt Olhausen. Josh and Matt discuss the increasing interest in technology applications for real estate assets, or “Proptech,” and tokenization’s potential.
Real Estate Trends: Looking Ahead to 2021 by Adam Weaver. Adam discussed the pandemic’s influence and future trends for the real estate market.

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Reprinted courtesy of Pillsbury's Construction & Real Estate Law Team

Construction Law- Where Pragmatism and Law Collide

January 06, 2020 — Christopher G. Hill - Construction Law Musings
If there is one “theme” to Construction Law Musings, those that read regularly hopefully see that I take my role as counselor to construction companies seriously. Aside from the fact that litigation and arbitration are both expensive and not a great way for any business, particularly a construction business, to make money, I have found construction professionals to be a pragmatic group of people that would rather solve a problem than go to court. I have also discussed the need for a good foundation for the project in the form of a well drafted and properly negotiated contract. This contract sets out the rights of the parties and essentially makes the “law” for your construction project. Virginia courts will not renegotiate the terms for you and while this can lead to problems where parties either don’t understand the terms or don’t work to level the terms, it does mean that the parties know what the expectations are where the expectations are properly set, preferably with the help of your friendly neighborhood construction attorney and counselor at law. Practical considerations such as your feel for the other party and which terms are worth forgoing the work for should drive your considerations almost as much as the legal implications. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of The Law Office of Christopher G. Hill
Mr. Hill may be contacted at chrisghill@constructionlawva.com

Meet Daniel Hall, Assistant Professor at TU Delft

January 17, 2023 — Aarni Heiskanen - AEC Business
We sat down with Daniel M. Hall, an assistant professor at TU Delft, to discuss ways of achieving circularity in the built environment. Daniel will be a keynote speaker at WDBE in September 2023, where he’ll talk more about future circular cities. Daniel is internationally known for his research on construction management and construction informatics. He did his Ph.D. at Stanford and worked for almost five years as an Assistant Professor of Innovative and Industrial Construction at ETH Zurich. In September 2022, he moved to the Netherlands. The Delft University of Technology, Daniel’s new home base, strongly emphasizes the circular economy and circularity and has a long history of excellent teaching and research. It provides an inspiring environment for innovating the future. Why we need to improve circularity in cities “We cannot keep building the way we’ve been building. We don’t have enough resources; we don’t have enough materials,” Daniel asserts. “Obviously, we have questions around carbon impact. Around 40 percent of all CO2 emissions come from a combination of building operations and building materials.” Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Aarni Heiskanen, AEC Business
Mr. Heiskanen may be contacted at aec-business@aepartners.fi

Embattled SNC-Lavalin Files Ethics Appeal, Realigns Structure

May 01, 2019 — Debra K. Rubin - Engineering News-Record
Even as Montreal design-build giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. faces corporate bribery charges on old Libya contracts, the firm now seeks, in an April 4 federal court appeal, to reverse Canadian prosecutors’ 2018 rejection of a negotiated settlement. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Debra K. Rubin, ENR
Ms. Rubin may be contacted at rubind@enr.com

Firm Pays $8.4M to Settle Hurricane Restoration Contract Case

December 13, 2022 — James Leggate - Engineering News-Record
An electricity distribution infrastructure contractor that worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on hurricane restoration in Puerto Rico has agreed to pay the government $8.4 million to resolve allegations that it improperly withheld pricing data. The company denies the charges, agreeing to the settlement in order to avoid lengthy litigation. Reprinted courtesy of James Leggate, Engineering News-Record Mr. Leggate may be contacted at leggatej@enr.com Read the full story... Read the court decision
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Can an Owner Preemptively Avoid a Mechanics Lien?

May 25, 2020 — William L. Porter - Porter Law Group
Various sections of the California Civil Code, beginning with section 8000, protect the right of contractors, subcontractors and suppliers in the construction industry to obtain payment for work performed and materials supplied to construction projects. Under these statutes, unpaid claimants are entitled to use mechanics liens, stop payment notices and other methods to protect their right to payment. Mechanics liens allow unpaid claimants to sell the property where the work was performed in order to obtain payment. Stop payment notices force the owner or the bank to set money aside to pay unpaid claimants. Article XIV of our California Constitution even elevates the mechanics lien remedy to a “constitutional right”. The system generally works well, and claimants are paid. As someone who practices and teaches construction law, I have noticed a seldom used statutory tool that seems to provide a mechanism for property owners under certain circumstances to prevent subcontractors and suppliers from imposing enforceable mechanics lien on property where work was performed. Under California Civil Code section 8520, it appears that all that an owner of property need do to avoid a mechanics lien on its property is to give a proper notice (per Civil Code section 8100 et seq.) to a person who has a mechanics lien right (a subcontractor or supplier) that the owner is invoking Civil Code section 8520 and that if the claimant is unpaid for work performed or materials supplied to the owner’s property that the claimant must either provide the owner with a stop payment notice or forfeit the right to a mechanics lien on the owner’s property. This would allow an owner to avoid a mechanics lien on its property if the claimant failed to send a stop payment notice to the owner. Providing the “notice” under Civil Code section 8100 appears to be easy. It can be sent by “registered or certified mail or by express mail or by overnight delivery by an express service carrier”. It can even be by “hand delivery”. As far as the notice itself, it would seem that it can be very simple and easily performed under the process described below, which can be implemented within the office of any owner or developer. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of William L. Porter, Porter Law Group
Mr. Porter may be contacted at bporter@porterlaw.com

FAIRFIELD CONNECTICUT BUILDING EXPERT DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES