CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS BUILDING EXPERT
DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES

Anthony Garasi, Jared Christensen and August Hotchkin are Recognized as Nevada Legal Elite

July 06, 2020 — Dolores Montoya - Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara LLP
Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara, LLP is proud to announce Partners Anthony Garasi and Jared Christensen in our Las Vegas office, along with Associate August Hotchkin in our Reno office are being recognized as Nevada Legal Elites in the Nevada Business Magazine. The Nevada Legal Elite list includes the top 4 percent of attorneys in the state broken down by location. To qualify, each nominee goes through an extensive verification process resulting in the top attorneys in the state, chosen by their peers. Upon the nomination process closing, each ballot is individually reviewed for eligibility and every voting attorney is verified with the State Bar of Nevada. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Dolores Montoya, Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara LLP

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With Trump's Tariff Talk, Time to Negotiate for Escalation Clauses in Construction Contracts

December 17, 2024 — Richard Korman - Engineering News-Record
Remember 2019? That’s when contractors faced sudden material price surges from tariffs during then-President Donald Trump’s first term in office. How about 2021? That's when contractors saw new price surges and long delivery delays because of Covid-19. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Richard Korman, ENR
Mr. Korman may be contacted at kormanr@enr.com

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The G2G Year in Review: 2021

January 24, 2022 — Pillsbury's Construction & Real Estate Law Team - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real Estate Law Blog
With 2021 now behind us, we wanted to share our top five most-read articles of 2021 from Gravel2Gavel. The most-read blog posts covered real estate and construction industry trends ranging from Proptech, smart construction, COVID-eviction moratoriums, and blockchain tokenization. Throughout the year, G2G posts provided deep industry insight and summarized hot topics addressing the legal implications and disruptions that affected the market, and we will continue to expand on these insights in 2022. Our 2021 roundup:

1. Blockchain Innovations and Real Estate: NFTs, DeFis and dApps by Craig A. de Ridder

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

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Housing Inflation Begins to Rise

February 25, 2014 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
According to Kathleen Madigan writing for The Wall Street Journal, “inflation remains muted at the start of 2014” except in one category: housing. Madigan stated that housing costs were “worth watching.” The “owners’ equivalent rent index had been rising at a steady pace through most of 2012 and 2013, with 12-month percent changes hovering around 2%” however, “the pace picked up” at the end of last year. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of

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Chambers USA 2021 Recognizes Five Partners and Two Practices at Lewis Brisbois

June 07, 2021 — Lewis Brisbois
Five Lewis Brisbois partners and two Lewis Brisbois practices were recently ranked by Chambers in its 2021 USA rankings list. Kansas City and Wichita Managing Partner Alan L. Rupe and Phoenix Managing Partner Carl F. Mariano were both ranked Band 1 for “Labor & Employment – Kansas” and “Insurance – Arizona,” respectively, while Minneapolis Partner Tina A. Syring was ranked Band 4 for “Labor & Employment – Minnesota,” and Washington D.C. Managing Partner Jane C. Luxton and Partner Karen C. Bennett were ranked Band 5 for “Environment – District of Columbia.” Significantly, Chambers also ranked Lewis Brisbois’ Kansas Labor & Employment Practice Band 2 and the firm’s Washington D.C. Environmental Practice Band 4. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Lewis Brisbois

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Meet Orange County Bar Associations 2024 Leaders

April 08, 2024 — Dolores Montoya - Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara LLP
Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara, LLP is proud to share that CEO/Founding Partner Nicole Whyte and Orange County Bar Association’s (“OCBA”) leaders are featured in the Orange County Lawyer (“OCL”) publication, Who’s Who In The OCBA, that was released earlier this month. To see this year’s 2024 board of directors, section leaders, committee chairs, task forces, and charitable fund board, please click here. Nicole Whyte provides individualized counseling and representation in all areas of Family Law. She has served on various OCBA legal committees and boards for over two decades and was elected to OCBA’s Board of Directors in 2024. She is committed to supporting the needs of the OCBA and its thriving and diverse OC legal community. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Dolores Montoya, Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara LLP

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WSDOT Seeks Retraction of Waiver Excluding Non-Minority Woman-Owned Businesses from Participation Goals

September 28, 2017 — Lindsay K. Taft - Ahlers & Cressman PLLC
If you are a regular reader of our blog, you will likely recognize that our firm has been actively involved and concerned with the results of Washington State Department of Transportation’s (“WSDOT”) Disparity Study, which impacts both Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (“DBE”) and general contractors who bid on federally-funded projects with DBE goals. On June 1, 2017, WSDOT implemented a “waiver”, which excluded Caucasian women-owned firms (“WBEs”) from qualifying for Condition of Award DBE Goals on federally-funded projects. This drastic action was the result of WSDOT’s highly criticized 2012 Disparity Study conducted by BBC Research & Consulting of Denver, Colorado, which concluded non-minority women-owned firms do not face “substantial disparities” in the federally-funded transportation contracting market. BBC’s study was criticized for a number of reasons, but most concerning was BBC’s flawed and unreliable statistical methodology that did not accurately represent true marketplace conditions. See Ahlers & Cressman letter of January 9, 2014 and Associated General Contractors of Washington article. For example, BBC’s results showed both decreasing WBE availability and availability vastly out of range with other states (e.g., the availability of women-owned construction firms in Washington was just 1.5% compared to 11.96% in Oregon). Nevertheless, based on this flawed BBC study and BBC’s assertion that women-owned firms did not face disparities, WSDOT sought and on June 1, 2017 was granted a waiver precluding general contractors from counting WBE firms towards their DBE goals on federally funded public works projects. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Lindsay Taft, Ahlers & Cressman PLLC
Ms. Taft may be contacted at ltaft@ac-lawyers.com

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The Basics of Subcontractor Defaults – Key Considerations

February 15, 2021 — Gerard J. Onorata - Peckar & Abramson, P.C.
The success of general contractors in completing a construction project is often dependent upon the performance of their subcontractors. General contractors have frequently said exactly this. Traditionally, the key subcontractors on a project are the electrical, plumbing, HVAC and structural steel subs. Due to the fundamental nature of the work performed by these trades, the risk of defaulting and terminating one or more of them is likely to have a substantial impact on the project, more so than with the trade contractors that perform their work after a building is made weather tight (i.e., drywall, tile, painting). Most general contractors have, over a period of years, established longstanding relationships with certain subcontractors that they have come to depend upon. The risk of having to default and terminate one of these subs is minimal. Nevertheless, there will inevitably arise occasions when even a once reliable subcontractor fails to perform and it becomes necessary to invoke the remedies of default and termination. Areas ripe for controversy with subcontractors that often can lead to default and termination often involve disputes over change orders and the scope of work, the installation of defective work and the back-charges that ensue therefrom, and, to a lesser extent, conflicts that arise from ambiguous plans and specifications and the extra work and delays caused by the discovery of unforeseen site conditions. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Gerard J. Onorata, Peckar & Abramson, P.C.
Mr. Onorata may be contacted at gonorata@pecklaw.com

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