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Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 10, 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released for public comment its draft 2023-2027 Strategic Enforcement Plan (“SEP”)—a document that will guide the Commission’s enforcement priorities for the next five years. The EEOC’s prior Strategic Plan described how it would pursue its enforcement goals. (See our earlier blog on the Strategic Plan here). The Strategic Enforcement Plan, on the other hand, describes what the EEOC’s enforcement priorities will be. Earlier actions by the EEOC suggested that it might be turning its attention to the construction industry. In the SEP, the EEOC makes its intentions explicit, putting the construction industry—and especially those receiving federal funding—squarely in its sights.

History of the SEP

The EEOC’s first SEP covered Fiscal Years 2013-2016 (the EEOC’s fiscal years begin on October 1) and identified six broad subject-matter priorities. The EEOC’s second SEP set the course for enforcement priorities for FY2017-2022. The latest proposed SEP, published in the Federal Register for comment for the first time, provides notable additional details that put the employer community on notice of the Commission’s intentions for FY2023-2027.[1]…

Continue Reading The EEOC Targets Construction Industry For Heightened Enforcement

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In Cell-Crete Corp. v. Fed. Ins. Co., a California court awarded a surety attorneys’ fees and costs that its principal incurred defending the surety against a claim on a public-works payment bond.[1] This is good news for sureties and their principals, who commonly defend sureties against such claims pursuant to a general indemnity agreements (“GIA”). 

The payment bond and related litigation

Granite Construction Company (“Granite”) entered into a contract with the County of Riverside to complete a roadway project (“Project”). Granite subcontracted with Cell-Crete Corporation (“Cell-Crete”) for installation of light weight concrete at the Project. Granite obtained a payment bond (the “Bond”) from Federal Insurance Company (“Federal”) pursuant to the California Little Miller Act,[2] which requires payment bonds for any public project in excess of $25,000. As Granite’s surety, Federal required that Granite sign a GIA obligating it to defend, indemnify, and hold Federal harmless against claims made against the Bond. …

Continue Reading California Court Confirms Surety’s Right to Recover Attorney Fees and Costs Incurred by Its Principal

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Both the General Services Administration (“GSA”) and the Department of Defense (“DOD”) are recognizing the impact of the eight percent rate of inflation on federal contractors. On September 9, 2022, DOD released a memo providing guidance to contracting officers “about the range of approaches available to them” to manage the effect of inflation on existing…

James Newland is presenting a fourteen-part webinar series for Federal Publications Seminars. This fourteen-part webinar series is a deep dive into construction contracts, claims, and risk management as it presents and analyzes the risks that arise on construction projects, the contract clauses and drafting considerations in allocating those risks, and the claims and disputes methods and procedures used in documenting, presenting, mediating, arbitrating, or litigating the claims when they arise.  Along the way, the course presents and analyzes those topics from the perspective of the owner, general contractor and subcontractors operating on public or private construction projects. The topics are presented from both a legal and practical standpoint and the program discusses the substantive and administrative aspects of the key clauses, risks and claims prevalent on public and private construction projects.

See the full list of programs below, and register on the Federal Publications Seminars website.
Continue Reading James Newland to Present Construction Contracts, Claims, and Risk Management Webinar Series

Thursday, October 7, 2021
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Central
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Mountain
10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Pacific

Register Here

Real estate developers face numerous pandemic-related challenges. In this webinar, we will discuss how developers are changing the terms of their loan agreements, construction contracts,…

Chuck Wall, partner in Seyfarth’s Construction group, will co-host and moderate the Maryland Transportation Builders and Materials Association (“MTBMA”) webinar “Public-Private Partnerships: Demystifying the P3 Delivery Model” on April 20, 2021, at 1 p.m. Eastern.

As the need for dramatic improvements to transportation infrastructure continues to increase, available state and local resources are becoming even…

Seyfarth partner James Newland co-authored “Preparing and Presenting Loss of Labor Productivity Claims: Analysis of the Methodologies with Two Exemplars”, published in the Summer 2020 edition of the ABA’s The Construction Lawyer.

It is beyond doubt that losses of labor productivity exist in the construction industry. When a party seeks to recover…

On August 26, 2020, James Newland, AIA, partner in Seyfarth’s Construction group, along with Andrew McCoy, Ph.D., Professor and Associate Director of the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech, will present the a free Lunch and Learn program: Construction Risk Management, Changes, Delays, Inefficiency, and Claims.

The program is free of charge and…

The 2020 edition of The Legal 500 United States recommends Seyfarth Shaw’s Construction group as one of the best in the country. Nationally, our Construction practice earned Top Tier, and our Government Contracts practice earned Tier 3.

Based on feedback from corporate counsel, Seyfarth partner Bennett Greenberg was ranked in the editorial’s “Hall of Fame,”…

To help airport owners, design and engineering professionals, and the contractor community, ACI-NA, ACC, and AGC have teamed up to transform our Airport Construction Strategy Summit into a webinar series that is taking place April 14, April 28, May 12, and May 26. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted a range of critical elements of project…