Best Practices Construction Law : Construction Lawyer & Attorney : Matthew DeVries : Stites & Harbison Law Firm : Green Building & LEED Litigation

If your project goes bad and you end up in court ... effective project management procedures can help you minimize your exposure.

I will be presenting this webinar to show you what you MUST document and what you SHOULD NOT document to help you win in court!  It is sponsored by WPL Publishing Co., Inc., the publishers of Construction Claims Advisor, Construction Project Controls & BIM Report and Green Building Insider.

This interactive program will provide you with guidance to help you develop effective procedures for documenting your projects.  You’ll get answers to your pressing questions, PLUS you will get sample forms and correspondence you can put to use right away to make sure you are documenting everything you should be –  in the right way.  This course will explore:

• “Putting it in writing” rule – what should you record?
• For whom are you documenting?
• What is the hearsay rule?
• Why are proper records so essential for claims and disputes?
• Critical project documentation – what you absolutely need to document; and non-critical documentation – what you don’t need to document?
• How to use project management software and Web-based capabilities to move towards a paperless project, establish good audit trail and consolidate project documentation
  Is written instruction via e-mail the same as a change order?
• What should you do when a project goes bad?
• AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!

The presentation is set for Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 1:00 to 2:30pm (EDT).  You can register online.   More importantly, if you have any great construction "war stories" that you would like to share, please let me know. 

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Best Practices. Lessons Learned. Reliable Methodologies. Successful Techniques. Scour the Internet and you will find any number of good definitions for "best practices", including:

• "A commitment to using the best practices in any field is a commitment to using all the knowledge and technology at one's disposal to ensure success." (What Is)
• "A technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result." (Wikipedia)

"Best Practice ... implies accumulating and applying knowledge about what is working and not working in different situations and contexts, including lessons learned and the continuing process of learning, feedback, reflection and analysis (what works, how and why)." (VisitAsk)

I have fond memories as a newly minted lawyer in the Washington, D.C. area ... working for a nationally recognized construction boutique law firm ... writing various for senior partners on "lessons learned" and "best practices."  Through the years of research, writing and litigating, I learned that many disputes could have been avoided by employing best practices during all phases of the project ... contract drafting ... team building ... document management ... efficient technology ... and the list goes on forever.

To us, Best Practices Construction Law is "... using experience, knowledge and technology to ensure success in the construction industry ..."  And that is what we are going to explore.   In the process, we are going to have some fun.  I will open the door to my family ... you can do the same ... and let's make a difference in the construction world.

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Earlier this week, I read an article in the Daily Commercial News about the future of building information modeling: 

The advent of building information modeling will have a major impact on project-delivery methods, says Ottawa contractor Doug Burnside, president of Dolyn Developments Inc.

“I think we are going to see more design-build projects as opposed to traditional design-bid-build,” he told a seminar at the Ontario General Contractors Association’s 6th annual construction symposium.

“I don’t see it happening tomorrow, but it’s certainly in the pipeline.”

After reading the article, I picked up the phone to chat with my colleague from up North.  I introduced myself. (... I am sure my accent sounded as foreign to him as this Ottawa gent's accent sounded to me ... except I liked his accent! ...)

Doug's comments above were made as part of the President's Panel for Ottawa's General Contractors' Association.  Doug and his fellow construction presidents (Matt Ainley, of Vanbots, a division of Carillion Construction, Frank DeCaria, of Eastern Construction; Tom Kemp, of James Kemp Construction Ltd.) gave brief introductions and answered questions from the conference members. 

"Building information modeling will be mainstream one day," Doug told me on the phone. "It will be like AutoCAD ... If you don't speak BIM, you can't play."  

To you, Doug's comments may be a "no brainer."  But to me, they represent the real dilemma that many contractors and industry players will face in the next few years.  As Doug explained, "The real question  for us is: At what point do we buy in?" 

If the construction industry is heading in a particular direction--whether it involves a particular project delivery system, a particular document management software, or a particular process like BIM--the key inquiries are: (1) When does your company join the industry trend?; and (2) How much do you invest in getting involved?  I think the "no brainer" to the first question is NOW.  The second question will depend entirely on your resources available and your ingenuity in finding support from within the industry (such as a seminar given by AGC or ABC).

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My roomie from law school, Rick Klau, sent me a note this past weekend.  Actually, he tweeted it!  (You, too, can follow me at www.twitter.com/matthewdevries).  I was excited to hear where Rick was visiting.

"Best Practices..." you ask, "Why are you posting about your old law school roommate? This is a construction-related blog!"

The best answer I can give you is that this former roomie of mine was asked to be the commencement speaker for the graduating class of 2009 of the University of Richmond School of Law and he had some great stories to share. After all, he went from law student, to founder of the first exclusively online law journal (JOLT), to author, to political volunteer, to owner of a start-up technology company that was purchased by Google ($$$), to technology guru at Blogger. 

Also, after reading the text of his speech, I am more convinced that his words hit the mark of Best Practices for any industry ... whether you are involved in the law, technology, finance or construction:

Google didn't get to where we are by following those before us. Nor will change come to the legal profession incrementally. To be an agent of change, a steward for the profession, you must think big. The forces at work are too large, too numerous, and evolving too quickly. You must have the audacity to, to borrow a tagline from another Silicon Valley company, think different.

To be a steward for the construction profession, you really have to think big ... you have to think different.  If we were to take a look at the Top 10 contractors, design-builders, architects, or engineers in the industry, no doubt you would find these attributes that set a company apart from the rest ... that is, the desire to think big ... to think differently ... to excel in their services.  Does your firm have a mission statement like Bob Moore Construction, Inc. in Arlington, Texas?  If not, it should. 

Rick, thanks for the great words of wisdom.  Whenever you are ready to write a guest post for BPCLaw, let us know.

Photo: tarotastic

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