Clark, Thomas & Winters represents owners, tenants, contractors, interior designers, design-build firms, and lenders in construction projects. Our work includes residential and multi-family, office, church, industrial, civil construction, and remodeling.

We help clients negotiate and document construction contracts, tenant improvement arrangements, subcontracts, and construction loan documents, meet land development requirements, manage environmental issues, acquire access to utilities, address bonding, payment, and lien issues, and implement systems to administer complex projects in accordance with the documents.

Our work focuses on risk management through careful design of contract flow-down provisions, insurance and bonding, appropriate indemnification arrangements, inspection and testing checkpoints, retainage arrangements, arbitration and mediation arrangements, and limitations on damages.

Clark, Thomas & Winters tries construction lawsuits and arbitration proceedings between owners and contractors, as well as with suppliers, subcontractors, regulatory authorities, and third parties.

For more information concerning our construction law and construction lending practice, please contact Joe Cain, or your existing relationship manager at the firm.

REPRESENTATIVE CLIENT INDUSTRIES

SERVICES

Contracting

We negotiate and document construction contracts, both on AIA forms and on other forms preferred by the parties. This work includes subcontracts and supply arrangements, project management, engineering, architectural support arrangements, bonding, and on-going parts and maintenance arrangements.

Finance and Title

We negotiate and document construction finance arrangements for lenders, owners, and contractors. These include tri-party lending structures, mortgage-secured construction term loans, take-out arrangements, permanent financing arrangements, and structured lease financing. Our construction finance work includes management of title matters such as mechanics' liens, public access, utility easements, conservation easements, and assessments.

Permitting

We help clients identify and obtain necessary environmental and land use permitting. We help owners, contractors, and lenders address environmental risks including known contamination of brownfield sites. We address matters of licensure for out-of-state engineers and architects working on Texas projects.

Contract Administration

We help clients fully implement their contracts by supporting contract administrators in areas of project scheduling, inspection, testing, and project turnover and commissioning, draws, invoicing, and retainage, equal opportunity and other workforce requirements, and bonding and insurance.

Dispute Resolution

We counsel clients in the design of risk management and dispute resolution provisions of their contracts. These include flow-down, insurance, indemnity arrangements, limitations on warranties and damages, inspection and testing checkpoints, acceptance processes, and arbitration and mediation provisions. When disputes arise, we help clients evaluate possible outcomes and negotiate settlements. We represent clients in the mediation, arbitration, trial of construction disputes, and in appeals of trial court decisions.

Litigation

We counsel clients in many aspects of litigation relating to construction. Experience includes both sides of the construction litigation docket involving both residential and commercial construction defect cases. Representative engagements include representing both homeowners and homebuilders in residential construction defect cases; representing commercial owners in multi-million dollar commercial construction defect cases involving commercial properties; and representing engineers and architects in construction defect cases.

REPRESENTATIVE TRANSACTIONS