Williams Mullen’s Construction Practice Group has extensive experience in all aspects of construction contracting and public procurement. We routinely work in all phases of project development and construction including site acquisition and financing, design, bidding and negotiation of contracts, contract formation, contract administration, risk assessment and dispute resolution. Our clients are engaged in the entire spectrum of the construction process: general contractors, sub-contractors, construction managers, owners, real estate developers, lending institutions, construction trade associations, materials and equipment suppliers and others.
Our team includes attorneys located in the firm’s Richmond, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Tysons Corner offices in Virginia and Raleigh and Wilmington offices in North Carolina. Our attorneys practice not only in Virginia and North Carolina, but throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. All of our members regularly appear in state and federal court. We are experienced in providing advice and support in the following areas:
Arbitration/Mediation
We represent clients in arbitration proceedings conducted pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act and State Uniform Arbitration Acts, and before arbitration panels of the American Arbitration Association and other formal and informal arbitration tribunals. Our attorneys also have extensive experience in mediation of construction disputes. We have successfully represented our clients in mediated settlements and resolution of both complex and routine disputes.
Contract Preparation and Review
Our members are knowledgeable of AIA, AGC, ConsensusDOCS and other form contracts widely used in the construction industry. We routinely negotiate, review and/or prepare contracts, subcontracts and purchase orders with a view to providing our clients the most advantageous contract provisions governing their relationships.
Immigration
Our Immigration Team has extensive experience representing clients with respect to matters involving the cross-border movement of personnel, compliance with immigration laws, and evolving immigration policy and legislation (at the federal, state and local level). We assist clients with obtaining a broad range of nonimmigrant visas, and with every step of the permanent residency process (i.e., obtaining ‘green cards’), including labor certifications, employment-based immigrant petitions, family-based immigrant petitions, and adjustments of status. In the context of construction law representations, we provide advice and assistance with respect to immigration compliance matters, the implementation of immigration policies and programs, and the application and drafting of immigration legislation. Our Immigration Team regularly counsels our clients on matters pertaining to Homeland Security and ICE enforcement of social security no-matches, security and background checks, and I-9 compliance. We provide I-9 compliance training to help businesses keep up with changes in ICE enforcement and to be prepared for the movement toward electronic verification systems. In this regard, our Immigration Team has authored a Worksite Enforcement and Corporate Compliance Manual. We regularly provide in-house training and alerts to assist our clients with staying ahead of upcoming changes in the fast-paced and often confusing area of immigration law.
Labor and Employment
Members of the Construction Practice Group, who focus their practice in the area of labor and employment law, counsel construction clients on all aspects of labor and employment law including compliance with Occupational Health and Safety laws, immigration, wage and hour compliance, Department of Labor compliance, affirmative action plans, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program, hiring-firing advice, Title VII training and compliance, union avoidance, Title VII litigation, Family Medical Leave Act compliance and all other aspects of labor and employment training, compliance and litigation.
Litigation
Our team has successfully conducted trials in hundreds of matters before both judges and juries involving defective construction; design disputes; differing site conditions, delay, inefficiency, acceleration and other impact claims; defective construction materials; mechanics’ liens; bonds and insurance claims.
Mechanics’ Liens
We have experience in the intricacies of mechanics’ lien laws. We advise our clients on the efficacy of filing liens, and prepare and enforce liens to resolution.
OSHA
We advise contractors with respect to Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, standards, inspections, and compliance.
Public Procurement and Bid Protests
We regularly represent offerors and bidders in disputes arising on federal projects before the General Accounting Office and the United States Court of Federal Claims and on state and local projects under the State Public Procurement Acts.
Government Contracts
We have experience in preparing claims and requests for equitable adjustments and litigating them before the Court of Federal Claims or the Boards of Contract Appeals. We assist clients in preventing and overturning improper contract terminations and also in preparing government contract compliance programs, drafting subcontracts, joint ventures and teaming agreements. We regularly respond to audits and investigations conducted by the Defense Contract Audit Agency and Agency Inspectors Generals. We also counsel clients on Small Business Administration programs, including the Small Business Development Program (formerly the 8(a) program) and the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, and on issues arising under the Service Contract Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Davis-Bacon Act. Additionally, we supplement our government contracts capabilities with input from attorneys in a wide variety of industry-specific practice areas.
Members of the Construction Law Practice Group are active in many industry-specific organizations including the Associated General Contractors, Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc., Builders & Contractors Exchange (Hampton Roads and Richmond chapters), Virginia Transportation Construction Alliance, Coastal Carolina Tomorrow, and the National Association of Women in Construction.
Representative Expereience
- Represented owners, developers, and general contractors of commercial properties in several multi-million dollar suits for defective construction and resulting property damage caused by the use of coal ash combustion by-products used as structural fill.
- Represented a general contractor in two multi-million arbitration claims filed by an electrical and a mechanical subcontractor, respectively, for damages allegedly caused by delay, disruption and inefficiency in connection with a large renovation/new construction project at a high school.
- Represented a general contractor in suit for fraud and breach of contract brought by the owner of a municipal baseball park claiming defective installation of structural steel.
- Represented a paper manufacturer in action against a design/build contractor for faulty design and construction of $50 million facility to generate electricity and steam.
- Represented a subcontractor on a project in West Virginia to construct a laboratory for the Centers for Disease Control arising under the Federal Contract Disputes Act.
- Represented a general contractor in a breach of contract action brought against a condominium owners’ association. The trial involved issues of the condominium owners’ selection of an in appropriate and defective paint product for application to the outside of an oceanfront high-rise condominium.
- Represented a residential real estate developer against a claim brought by a former partner for fraudulent conveyances and misappropriation of company funds.
- Represented a client in a construction case in which, for the first time in Virginia, the defense of “pay-when-paid” language in construction contracts was recognized by the Virginia Supreme Court.
- Represented a general contractor on a multi-million dollar fraud arbitration involving construction of a Fortune 500 company’s national headquarters building.
- Assisted a major construction contractor in settling a whistleblower suit under the False Claims Act by removing the federal government from the parties eligible to recover under the Act.