Haight’s 2020 San Diego Super Lawyers and Rising Stars
July 06, 2020 —
Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLPHaight congratulates partners
Michael Parme and
Arezoo Jamshidi who were selected to the 2020 San Diego Super Lawyers Rising Stars list.
Each year no more than 2.5% of the lawyers in the state are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor.
Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP
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To Catch a Thief
March 06, 2023 —
Christopher Durso - Construction ExecutiveTony Rader calls it “peeling back the onion”—the slow, methodical process of uncovering the full extent of an embezzlement scam that eventually totaled more than $1 million. What National Roofing Partners (NRP) first discovered was bad enough. The Coppell, Texas–headquartered company, which oversees a nationwide network of nearly 250 commercial roofing contractors, learned in 2018 that a South Texas firm called Statewide Texas Roofing was billing clients for work on behalf of NRP and pocketing all the money. It turned out to be a scheme masterminded by NRP’s then-president, who created Statewide, staffed the company with his kids and used phony work orders to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in client fees from NRP. He’d been president for six years and with the company since it was created in 2007. It was a huge betrayal—and still just the tip of the iceberg.
“Initially, we thought it was only half a million [dollars] or so,” says Tony Rader, NRP’s chief operating officer. “But I’ll never forget, [Chief Executive Officer] Steve [Little] and I were talking over a bourbon one night, and that’s when I told him, ‘I’ve seen this once before, and this is like an onion. You’ve only peeled off the outer layers. We’re going to be finding stuff for a year, and it’s just going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.’ He said, ‘You think?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I’m pretty sure.’” Rader was all too correct. Working with a third-party forensic accountant, NRP found that not only were its then-chief financial officer and several other employees involved in the scheme, but the president had also abused his corporate credit card, racking up personal charges going back to 2013—on luxury vacations, expensive dinners, clothes, jewelry, even his daughter’s destination wedding in Jamaica. The final tally on his scams: $1.4 million.
Reprinted courtesy of
Christopher Durso, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.
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New Certification Requirements for Veteran-Owned Small Business Concerns and Service-Disabled Veteran-owned Small Business Concerns Seeking Public Procurement Contracts
March 27, 2023 —
Jennifer Harris, Timothy D. Matheny & Abby Bello Salinas - ConsensusDocsEffective January 1, 2023, Veteran-Owned Small Business Concerns (VOSBs) and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Concerns (SDVOSBs) will be required to obtain Small Business Administration (SBA) certification to participate in any federal government agency VOSB or SDVOSB sole source or set-aside prime contracts. This change originated from a Final Rule (87 FR 73400) published by the SBA on November 29, 2022. As a result of this Final Rule, not only will VOSBs and SDVOSBs be required to re-visit, and in some cases re-apply for various certifications, but these new regulations will also impact joint ventures that rely on their member’s VOSB or SDVOSB status to bid public work.
New Regulation
Previously, a VOSB and SDVOSB could self-certify to perform set-aside and sole source projects on non-U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) procurements—a VOSB and SDVOSB only needed to be certified by the VA Center for Verification and Evaluation (CVE) when bidding on VA procurements contingent on its status.
Reprinted courtesy of
Jennifer Harris, Peckar & Abramson, P.C.,
Timothy D. Matheny, Peckar & Abramson, P.C. and Abby Bello Salinas, Law Clerk, Peckar & Abramson, P.C.
Ms. Harris may be contacted at jharris@pecklaw.com
Mr. Matheny may be contacted at tmatheny@pecklaw.com
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20 Wilke Fleury Attorneys Featured in Sacramento Magazine 2020 Top Lawyers!
August 10, 2021 —
Wilke Fleury LLPCongratulations to Wilke Fleury’s featured attorneys who made the Sacramento Magazine’s Top Lawyer List for 2020!
Each attorney has been awarded an accolade in the following practice areas:
Kathryne Baldwin – Insurance
Dan Baxter – Business Litigation & Government Contracts
Adriana Cervantes – Medical Malpractice
Heather Claus – Health Care
Aaron Claxton – Health Care
Dan Egan – Bankruptcy and Creditor/Debtor
Samson Elsbernd – Employment & Labor
Danny Foster – Litigation Insurance
David Frenznick – Construction & Construction Litigation
George Guthrie – Real Estate & Construction Litigation
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Wilke Fleury LLP
Building Resiliency: Withstanding Wildfires and Other Natural Disasters
September 25, 2023 —
Bill Creedon - Construction ExecutiveAccording to the National Fire Protection Association, between 2016 and 2020 an estimated average of 4,300 fires per year plagued structures under construction, adding up to about $376 million in annual property damage. More recently, the National Centers for Environmental Information reported that wildfires accounted for more than $3.2 billion in damages across the United States. These figures alone point to the heightened awareness that all companies—particularly construction companies—should maintain surrounding the unique challenges and risks that wildfires can present and how they could potentially impact the integrity of projects and the associated safety of their workers.
As North America grapples with the increasing frequency and severity of wildfires, hurricanes and additional severe weather events, numerous industries have had to adapt and implement proactive measures to minimize their risks and associated exposures. The impact of these natural disasters on the construction industry is indisputable, necessitating proactive measures that construction companies should seriously consider adopting to effectively mitigate those risks, efficiently navigate insurance complexities and seamlessly integrate data-driven solutions alongside modern tools like AI and predictive modeling.
Reprinted courtesy of
Bill Creedon, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.
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Mr. Creedon may be contacted at
bill.creedon@wtwco.com
The Business of Engineering: An Interview with Matthew Loos
July 15, 2019 —
Aarni Heiskanen - AEC BusinessMatthew Loos is an experienced project manager in the civil engineering industry. He works as a project engineer at Jones|Carter in Fort Worth, Texas. In this interview, we discuss Matt’s new book, The Business of Engineering.
It is not very common that an engineer writes a non-technical book. What inspired you to do so?
Have you ever gotten an idea stuck in your head that you just couldn’t let go of? A time when you couldn’t go to sleep because the idea was consistently begging for your attention?
That’s what happened to me. The idea for this book hits me right before bed, as most good ideas do. I couldn’t go to sleep after the idea struck me. I spent half of the night writing the chapters of this book in my mind. I had been thinking about the idea of engineering and how it relates to other career fields, even the non-technical ones. I was disenchanted with the trifling number of classes I took that prepared me for the business world. These were the initial thoughts that eventually led me down the road into thinking about engineering as a profession going forward.
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Aarni Heiskanen, AEC BusinessMr. Heiskanen may be contacted at
aec-business@aepartners.fi
Crowdfunding Comes to Manhattan’s World Trade Center
January 28, 2015 —
David M. Levitt – BloombergGot $5,000? You can invest in the 3 World Trade Center skyscraper under construction in lower Manhattan.
Fundrise, a real estate crowdfunding business, is inviting individual investors to put as little as $5,000 into bonds backing the 80-story tower, according to a statement e-mailed by Joshua Greenwald, a spokesman for the Washington-based company. The total cost for the Richard Rogers-designed building is projected to be $2 billion.
“We think the 3 World Trade Center investment offering is proof of the power of crowdfunding at work,” Dan Miller, co-founder of Fundrise, said in the statement. “We are proud to be able to give more people a chance to invest in this important iconic asset.”
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David M. Levitt, BloombergMr. Levitt may be contacted at
dlevitt@bloomberg.net
Contractor Covered for Voluntary Remediation Efforts in Completed Homes
October 10, 2013 —
Tred Eyerly — Insurance Law HawaiiThe Texas Supreme Court held that a home builder was covered for the voluntary removal and replacement of a defective insulation product it had installed in hundreds of homes. Lennar Corp. v. Market Am. Ins. Co., 2013 Tex. LEXIS 597 (Tex. Sup. Ct. Aug. 23, 2013).
Lennar built homes using an exterior insulation and finish system (EIFS). It was subsequently determined that EIFS trapped water inside homes with wood-frame walls, causing rot and structural damage, mildew and mold, and termite infestation. Lennar decided to contact all its homeowners and offer to remove the EIFS and replace it with conventional stucco.
Lennar notified its insurers that it would seek indemnification for the costs. The insurers refused to participate in Lennar's proactive efforts, preferring to wait and respond to homeowners' claims one by one.
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Tred EyerlyTred Eyerly can be contacted at
te@hawaiilawyer.com