Search results

By Jeremy Clarke | A board seat comes with fiduciary duties, legal exposure, and responsibilities that deserve more than an informal handoff.

By Nam Douglass | Businesses across the U.S. face increased federal scrutiny, making proactive workforce compliance essential to mitigate risk and avoid costly penalties.

By Lauren Martin | There has never been a downside to reporting circumstances to your professional liability insurance carrier, but there can be a huge downside for failing to report them.

By Lauren Martin | These clauses represent a real and potentially significant exposure for AEC firms for which there’s no insurance protection.

By Lauren Rhodes Martin | As natural disasters continue to increase in frequency and severity, so will the potential exposure to the design community.

By Rob Hughes | This subtle but onerous language is becoming fairly widespread in design contracts and, if overlooked, could leave design firms with significant, potentially uninsured exposures.

Good contracts can help, but timely and thorough reviews of shop drawings are, perhaps, the best defense.

Unless you put yourself out there as perfect, courts will typically hold you to the standard of reasonable care if you make a mistake.

If you’re a firm owner or design professional, don’t leave contractors guessing. Using plain language, make your intent clear to avoid disputes, change orders, and claims.

AEC firms have new options for addressing the ‘Duty to Defend’ obligation in indemnification provisions. As clients continue to look for ways to transfer greater amounts of project-related risk to design firms, it has become...

Under the Accepted-Work Doctrine, contractors and designers are relieved of liability to injured third parties after a completed project goes back to the owner. The Accepted-Work Doctrine – also known as the Acceptance Doctrine, the...

The Spearin Doctrine: Public owners do not shed all design risk by contracting for design-build if there are specified criteria upon which the design-builder is to rely. On government projects you may sometimes hear a...

In states that adhere to the ELD, design professionals have a strong defense against third-party claims for economic damages. Know the law in your project state. Law books are full of various “doctrines” that have...

Get the word out to your people that any form of illegal conduct – bribery and racketeering among them – will be grounds for immediate termination. Last week, attorney G. William Quatman, FAIA, Esq. wrote...

At $746 million, the EPA’s lowball price tag for cleaning up the Portland Harbor Superfund site is ‘wishful thinking,’ according to one important critic. By Richard Massey Managing Editor The Environmental Protection Agency recently released...