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Because business isn’t just about what you know, it’s about who you know.
Eli Robbins of Harrison Law Group
If you ever lost money on a project, you may have been wronged. A construction lawyer can help you figure out what and prevent it for the future.
“Most people don’t even know there’s such a thing as a construction lawyer,” says Eli Robbins, partner at Harrison Law Group.
“But legal issues are very real — and common — in construction.”
Anyone involved in the construction or development process should have a lawyer counseling them before and during the process.
“Everything lives or dies by the contract,” Eli says. With a solid contract, issues that arise during the course of construction are easier to resolve. Having an attorney review and negotiate the contract before it is executed helps allocate risk to the party where that risk belongs — and also educates the client about the potential issues that may arise during development or construction. This helps the client proactively avoid or minimize those issues.
Without a solid contract, much can go wrong.
For example, the owner says the contractor is required to put in one kind of device, but the contractor points to the blueprint or specs and says no, I need to put in a different kind of device.
Disputes can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
And that’s when many clients realize they should have hired a lawyer to begin with.
How long have you been in this business?
I’ve been practicing law since 1998 and construction law for 23 years now. I joined my firm, Harrison Law Group, in 2001.
One of the things that I greatly enjoy about practicing construction law is that, with so many specialties in construction, no two problems are alike. I’m still learning new things all the time, and it’s fascinating.
Where are you located?
Our office is located in Towson, MD, outside of Baltimore. The attorneys in our firm are admitted to practice in Maryland, New York, and Washington DC — however, we have a nationwide client base with projects all over the country. When we have to litigate in a state in which we are not admitted to practice, we leverage our local counsel network to help us gain admission in those courts.
What challenges are you seeing in the field today?
It’s all about money! Our disputes are generally about an owner, contractor, or subcontractor losing money on a job. When a client approaches us, we have 3 questions to address:
- Are they actually losing money?
- Why are they losing money?
- Is there someone responsible for the loss from whom we can try and recover the money?
Once we have clarity on the issue, we take a practical approach in figuring out how to provide the best possible value to the client.
Going all the way to trial will sometimes give the client the least return on investment, so many of our clients end up negotiating and resolving the issue at some point during the dispute resolution process.
While I’ve talked many clients out of litigation because it’s not in their best interest, when litigation does make sense, we aggressively litigate to increase our likelihood of prevailing at trial and to gain leverage to achieve a more favorable settlement.
How is the current economic situation playing a role for you?
It’s interesting because conventional wisdom says that the money should be drying up. And in multifamily residential and office spaces, the cash flow is tight. But when it comes to industrial, energy, healthcare, governmental, and military spending, we have not seen a difference despite the tough economy.
Have you attended business networking events in the past?
Yes, I’ve attended several local events before. But I haven’t been to OJBA before — and it’s a frum event, which makes it different and so much more exciting.
What are you hoping to accomplish at OJBA?
I’d like to meet people in the construction and development industries and let them know how we can help them.
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