On June 17, 2019, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Eastern, David Blake is co-presenting a Strafford webinar entitled: “Construction Management Agreements: Key Provisions Common Areas of Dispute, and Minimizing Performance Risks.” The panel, which includes construction practitioners experienced in negotiating construction management contracts, will focus on best practices for drafting and negotiating these agreements. They will also cover the critical clauses to include in the contracts and provide strategies for avoiding common drafting pitfalls and resolving contract disputes.
For more information or to register for the webinar, click here.
As a response to an increasingly demanding market place, project delivery methods have evolved from the more traditional methods of design-bid-build, design-build, and construction-manager-at-risk into what is known as Integrated Project Delivery (“IPD”). In the typical construction contract, each party seeks to avoid and transfer risk to other parties. The IPD approach employs a different philosophy—the project participants accept and manage design and construction risks as a team. The pure IPD method often does this with a single, multi-party contract that is executed by the owner, general contractor, and designer. The team members to a multi-party contract share financial risks and rewards using a profit/incentive pool that is based upon measurable project-outcomes. Team members collaborate on how the profit and incentive pool is structured to ensure that each member is accountable for its contribution to the project outcome. The goal is to motivate each member in a way that encourages candid communication and accountability for overall design and construction. 
On April 25 and 26, James Newland, partner in Seyfarth’s Construction Practice Group, will be presenting the “Changes and Claims in Government Construction Contracting” course at the Federal Publications Seminar at the Executive Conference and Training Center in Sterling, Virginia. His presentation will focus on owner changes and contractor claims in the federal government contracting arena. James regularly presents for the Federal Publications Seminars, which provide periodic training covering a variety of government contracting issues.
The typical government contract contains a laundry list of standard Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) or Defense Federal Regulation Acquisition Supplement (DFARS) clauses that outline the requirements for the construction or services to be provided. These clauses are either expressly stated, i.e. written out in full length in the contract, or incorporated by reference to a particular provision which the contractor must research for the specific language. But contractors beware: not all contracts are what they seem. Since 1963, courts have held that certain clauses are so integral to public procurements that they are deemed incorporated by operation of law, even if they are omitted from the contract. 
On March 19, 2019, Seyfarth’s Anthony LaPlaca and Teddie Arnold witnessed oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court in a government contracts case that has major implications for future enforcement of the federal False Claims Act (FCA).
Seyfarth Shaw partner Chuck Wall will serve on a panel entitled “The Contractor’s Role on the P3 Project Team” on Friday, March 22. The panel will be featured at a P3 Seminar sponsored by the Maryland Transportation Builders & Materials Association (MTBMA). Chuck will be joined by senior executives from the P3 development and contracting community, and the program will focus on informing contractors and other interested members about the basics of and potential opportunities involved with P3s.
Alison Ashford, Seyfarth partner and co-chair of the Seyfarth Construction Group, is moderating the “Risk/Reward?: Challenging Issues with Design/Construction Risk Allocation” panel at The Public-Private Partnership Conference & Expo, March 4-6 in Dallas, Texas.
For any “prime” or general construction contract that is $500,000 or greater and all subcontracts thereunder (regardless of amount), Tennessee law requires that the owner (and by implication, any construction lender funding construction draws and any general contractor responsible for payment to subcontractors) deposit the amount of any retainage in a third-party, interest-bearing escrow account with a financial institution at the time the retainage is withheld. (
Since taking office in 2017, President Trump has made no secret of his “Buy American, Hire American” initiative. The President recently took another step to promote American industry by signing an Executive Order on January 31, 2019, (the “Order”) which instructs all agencies to “maximize the use of iron and aluminum as well as steel, cement, and other manufactured products produced in the United States in contracts, sub-contracts, purchase orders, or sub-awards.”