Meet the Forum's In-House Counsel: J. PAUL ALLEN
May 28, 2024 —
Jessica Knox - The Dispute ResolverCompany: Fischer Homes
Email: paul@jpaulallen.com
Law School: Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University (JD 1992)
States Where Company Operates/Does Business: Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Georgia, Missouri, Florida
Q: Describe your background and the path you took to becoming in-house counsel.
A: I started at a large Cincinnati firm straight out of law school. I moved in-house for a client of the firm after about 8 years and have remained in-house ever since. The in-house experience has been rewarding and varied over the last 24 years. I have worked for a Fortune 500, publicly traded steel company, a private equity led construction products company, and, finally, a family-owned residential homebuilder. I had the good fortune to be General Counsel at the last 2 in-house companies and was able to establish a legal department from scratch at Fischer Homes. As time went on and I gained experience, I stayed in-house because of the ability to work for a single client and have a greater impact on the business side of things.
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Jessica Knox, Stinson LLPMs. Knox may be contacted at
jessica.knox@stinson.com
Rulemaking to Modernize, Expand DOI’s “Type A” Natural Resource Damage Assessment Rules Expected Fall 2023
December 23, 2023 —
Amanda G. Halter, Jillian Marullo & Ashleigh Myers - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real Estate Law BlogThe U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) anticipates proposing a new rule that would revise its “Type A” Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) regulations under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) in Fall 2023. The proposed rule would modernize DOI’s rarely used simplified Type A procedures for assessing damages for natural resource injuries tailored at sites involving minor releases of hazardous substances, with a smaller scale and scope of natural resource injury occurring in either coastal and marine areas or Great Lakes environments (the “Type A Rule”). (See 88 Fed. Reg. 3373; see 43 C.F.R. Pt. 11 Subpt. D.) The Type A Rule was last updated in 1997.
DOI previewed the proposal in January 2023 in its Office of Restoration and Damage Assessment’s (ORDA)
Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR). In the ANPR, the ORDA surmised that the Type A Rule was rarely used in part because of its restricted scope, but also because “the model equation for each Type A environment is the functional part of the rule itself—with no provisions to reflect evolving toxicology, ecology, technology, or other scientific understanding without a formal amendment to the Type A Rule each time a parameter is modified.” Calling the existing rule “inefficient and inflexible,” the ORDA stated that its proposal to reformulate the rule “as a procedural structure” would “modernize the Type A process and develop a more flexible and enduring rule than what is provided by the two existing static models” (88 Fed. Reg. 3373).
Reprinted courtesy of
Amanda G. Halter, Pillsbury,
Jillian Marullo, Pillsbury and
Ashleigh Myers, Pillsbury
Ms. Halter may be contacted at amanda.halter@pillsburylaw.com
Ms. Marullo may be contacted at jillian.marullo@pillsburylaw.com
Ms. Myers may be contacted at ashleigh.myers@pillsburylaw.com
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Ruling Dealing with Constructive Changes, Constructive Suspension, and the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing
January 22, 2024 —
David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal UpdatesA dispute pending in the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) dealt with interesting legal issues on a motion to dismiss. See Appeals of McCarthy Hitt-Next NGA West JV, ASBCA No. 63571, 2023 WL 9179193 (ASBCA 2023). The dispute involves a contractor passing through subcontractor claims due to impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s response to the pandemic. More particularly, the claim centers on the premise that the government “failed to work with [the contractor] in good faith to develop a collaborative and cooperative approach to manage and mitigate the impacts and delays arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.” See Appeals of McCarthy Hitt.
The contractor (again, submitting pass through claims from subcontractors) claimed: (a) constructive changes to the contract entitling it to an equitable adjustment under the Changes clause of Federal Acquisition Regulation (F.A.R.) 52.243-4; (b) construction suspensions of the contractor’s work entitling it to an equitable adjustment under the Suspensions of Work clause of F.A.R. 52-242-14; and (c) the government breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Each of these legal issues and theories will be discussed below because they are need-to-know legal issues. Keep these legal issues in mind, and the ASBCA’s ruling on the motion to dismiss as its analysis may demonstrate fruitful in other applications.
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David Adelstein, Kirwin Norris, P.A.Mr. Adelstein may be contacted at
dma@kirwinnorris.com
Candis Jones Named to Atlanta Magazine’s 2023 “Atlanta 500” List
February 01, 2023 —
Candis Jones - Lewis Brisbois NewsroomAtlanta, Ga. (January 30, 2023) - Atlanta Partner Candis R. Jones has been named to Atlanta Magazine’s 2023 “Atlanta 500” list of the most powerful law professionals in Atlanta. This is the third year in a row she has received this recognition.
To compile this list, the publication reviewed nominations from the public and consulted experts across various sectors. The magazine’s editors and writers considered not only the status of the nominees within their respective organizations, but also whether the nominees were visionaries who led programs for their communities and created opportunities for employees. According to Atlanta Magazine, this year's nominees displayed an "intensified commitment to inclusiveness."
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Candis Jones, Lewis BrisboisMs. Jones may be contacted at
Candis.Jones@lewisbrisbois.com
Appellate Team Secures Victory in North Carolina Governmental Immunity Personal Injury Matter
January 23, 2023 —
Sam Friedman & Christopher Meeks - Lewis BrisboisAtlanta, Ga. (January 12, 2023) - Atlanta Appellate Partners Seth M. Friedman and Christopher Meeks obtained a significant appellate win on behalf of a city in North Carolina when the North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s denial of the city’s motion for summary judgment.
In the underlying case, Lewis Brisbois’ client was sued for injuries that occurred during the construction of a dog park. The city moved for summary judgment on the grounds that it was immune from suit under the doctrine of governmental immunity. The trial court denied the motion and held that the city waived its governmental immunity through the purchase of a liability insurance policy. Lewis Brisbois was subsequently retained to handle the appeal.
Before the North Carolina Court of Appeals, Lewis Brisbois argued, on behalf of its client, that well-established North Carolina law, along with a particular provision in the city’s insurance policy, rendered the city immune from the plaintiff’s claims. The appellate court agreed, holding that the city was immune from all liability and entitled to summary judgment on all of the plaintiff’s claims. The court's full opinion can be read
here.
Reprinted courtesy of
Sam Friedman, Lewis Brisbois and
Christopher Meeks, Lewis Brisbois
Mr. Friedman may be contacted at Seth.Friedman@lewisbrisbois.com
Mr. Meeks may be contacted at Christopher.Meeks@lewisbrisbois.com
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Are You a Construction Lienor?
November 15, 2017 —
David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal UpdatesWhen it comes to construction lien rights, not everyone that touches the project is a proper lienor. Forget about timely serving a Notice to Owner or recording a claim of lien, if you are not a proper lienor, it does not matter if you properly perfected your lien rights. If you are not a proper lienor, you have NO lien rights under the law!
Florida Statue s. 713.01(18) defines a lienor as follows:
(18) “Lienor” means a person who is:
(a) A contractor;
(b) A subcontractor;
(c) A sub-subcontractor;
(d) A laborer;
(e) A materialman who contracts with the owner, a contractor, a subcontractor, or a sub-subcontractor; or
(f) A professional lienor under s. 713.03;
and who has a lien or prospective lien upon real property under this part, and includes his or her successor in interest. No other person may have a lien under this part.
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David Adelstein, Florida Construction Legal UpdatesMr. Adelstein may be contacted at
Dadelstein@gmail.com
Development in CBF Green Building Case in Maryland
August 19, 2015 —
Christopher G. Hill – Construction Law MusingsRemember that case I discussed a while back relating to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) building in Annapolis, Maryland? Remember how it was a lawsuit over parallams and failure of those parallams? Do you even remember what a parallam is?
Well, that case was initially dismissed upon the Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment because the trial court determined that CBF did not file its lawsuit within the proper time frame after notice of the potential failure of the building materials. Of course, CBF appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals under the caption The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Inc., et. al. v. Weyerhaeuser Company (4th Circuit).
After a great review of the facts of the case, the engineering inspections and reports at issue and the trial court’s ruling, the Fourth Circuit vacated the dismissal and remanded the case for further proceedings. The Court of Appeals reasoned that the district court jumped the gun in dismissing the lawsuit so early in the process because:
a genuine dispute exists as to whether knowledge of the water infiltration problem would have put a reasonable person on notice that the Parallams were susceptible to premature deterioration and that their PolyClear 2000 treatment would not preserve them.
In short, the court ruled that the engineering reports relating to moisture issues would have put CBF on notice of the particular issue of deterioration that was at issue in the litigation.
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Christopher G. Hill, Law Office of Christopher G. Hill, PCMr. Hill may be contacted at
chrisghill@constructionlawva.com
NYC Building Explosion Kills Two After Neighbor Reports Gas Leak
March 12, 2014 —
Michelle Kaske and Henry Goldman, BloombergFifteen minutes after a New York City resident reported the pervasive smell of gas in her East Harlem neighborhood, a massive explosion destroyed two buildings, killing two people and injuring at least 18. Utility workers arrived too late.
The explosion at 1644 and 1646 Park Ave., near 116th Street, reported about 9:30 a.m., was heard miles away and turned into a five-alarm fire. Windows were blown out as far as 10 blocks away, and cars across the street were wrecked. The blast sent debris onto adjacent elevated train tracks, halting commuter rail service in and out of Grand Central Terminal. Minor wounds were too numerous to count, said Frank Gribbon, a spokesman for the New York City Fire Department.
“This is a tragedy of the worst kind,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a news conference near the scene. He said residents are still missing from the buildings, which had a total of 15 units, and crews would search for them when the fire is extinguished.
Ms. Kaske may be contacted at mkaske@bloomberg.net; Mr. Goldman may be contacted at hgoldman@bloomberg.net
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Michelle Kaske and Henry Goldman, Bloomberg