After two years of hard work, we are pleased to announce that Construction Subcontracting: A Comprehensive Practical and Legal Guide has been published by the American Bar Association (“ABA”), and Mark Cobb is pleased to have been one of the contributors to this amazing new resource (and the only participating attorney from Georgia!)

Although this publication could be useful to many people including construction and credit professionals, it is a book written by subcontractor law attorneys primarily for other attorneys who need to know more about the subject.  In some ways, it is intended to begin codifying and identifying those issues unique to specialty trade subcontractors and material suppliers as the new concept of SUBCONTRACTOR LAW becomes more and more recognized by legal professionals, educators, and construction industry professionals.

Construction Subcontracting: A Comprehensive Practical and Legal Guide was the brain-child of Division 9 of the ABA’s Forum on the Construction Industry. Founded in 1976, the Forum has grown to become the largest organization of construction lawyers in the world. It fulfills its mission of “Building the Best Construction Lawyers” and Forum members represent all segments of the industry, including owners, design professionals, contractors, construction managers, integrated design-builders, subcontractors, suppliers, insurers, and sureties.  Division 9 is a sub-group of Forum member attorneys  who represent and focus on the unique needs of specialty trade contractors and suppliers.  The attorneys who are active in Division 9 recognized the lack of a national publication and guide in this burgeoning area of practice.  This book remedies this in fulfilling its mission to be “comprehensive”, “practical” and “legal”.  The three editors, each of whom are at the top of their profession, chose to divided the text into the following six parts:

• The Subcontract Document
• Subcontract Performance
• Insurance, Bonding, and Licensure
• Disputes
• Special Project Issues
• Other Contracting Arrangements

As you can imagine with a book of this caliber, each section is filled with multiple chapters dedicated to explaining the fundamentals of Subcontractor Law including contractual rights and obligations, Federal and state statutory provisions impacting subcontractors as well as common law issues and remedies affecting construction professionals.

Part One of the book discusses “The Subcontract Document” which includes an examination into subcontract terms commonly used in standard contract templates (such as AIA contracts, ConsensusDocs and others frequently used construction forms) as well as their advantages and disadvantages; this section tears apart the common subcontract terms including flow-down provisions, change orders, insurance, warranties, terminations, and lien waivers.  In addition to these (and other) express contract provisions, the section also discusses implied subcontract terms such as covenant of good faith and fair dealing.  This important section also addresses the formation of subcontracts from the bid process through final negotiations and includes topics such as Bid Shopping, Bid Padding, Promissory Estoppel Doctrine, Negotiation Strategies and Preparing Fall-Back Provisions.

Part Two discusses “Subcontract Performance” which looks at such diverse subjects as construction scheduling, excusable and non-excusable delays, acceleration and damages as well as tips regarding calculation of damages.  This section of the book also includes chapters on payment issues, mechanics and construction liens, change orders and extras as well as issues related to differing site claims, asserting and proving the claims of subcontractors, as well as contract terminations. This lengthy section of the book concludes with the topics of Warranties in Construction Subcontracts (expressed and implied), an analysis of the Spearin Doctrine (i.e., the owner’s implied warranty), Indemnity and Federal Prevailing Wage Law and Project Labor Agreements including the Davis-Bacon Act, Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act, and The Copeland Anti-Kickback Act.  (Stay tuned for a future blog post in which Mark will provide a detailed summary regarding his contributions to the chapter on Subcontractor payments.)

Part Three addresses the vital topic of “Insurance, Bonding, and Licensure” and includes a detailed analysis of the different types of insurance generally required of subcontractors including General Liability Insurance, Professional Liability Insurance, Builders Risk Insurance, Workers’ Compensation Insurance, Automobile Coverage as well as related issues such as waivers, endorsements and subrogation.  This section also provides chapters on surety bond issues, Miller Act and “Little Miller Act”, payment bonds, performance bonds, and mechanics lien discharge bonds.  Regarding subcontractor licensure, the book discusses the need for a licenses, the various governing boards and non-compliance with licensure requirements as well as the payment rights for unlicensed subcontractors.

Part Four attacks the difficult topic of “Disputes” including an analysis of typical subcontract provisions such as the Duty to Continue Work Pending a Dispute, Direct Discussion and Escalation; this part also looks at litigation pass-through claims discussing such vital topics as case management, discovery and joint defense agreements; in addition, it looks at alternate dispute resolution methods including mediation, arbitration and dispute avoidance.

Part Five’s “Special Project Issues” takes a look into several interesting and often-overlooked subjects including an analysis of Federal, State and Local Contracting (including discussion on competitive bidding, preference and incentive programs and bid protects); Alternative Project Delivery (such as design-build, Tri-Party Agreements, and Public-Private Partnerships); Green Building issues (including the LEEDS rating systems as well as others rating systems such as Earth Advantage, The Living Building Challenge, DGNB and others as well as the additional project risks associated with green building techniques); finally, this section addresses Globalization and International Projects whether led by foreign contractors working on projects in the United States or US contractors working abroad.

Section Six, the final section, addresses the cutting-edge topic of “Other Contracting Arrangements”, and it includes discussion on “newer” arrangements such as  Subconsulting Design Contracts, Design Issues, Supply Contracts and Equipment Leases (including equipment rentals on construction projects), Teaming Arrangements such as joint-venture agreements along with their management, advantages and disadvantages including their role in the federal procurement context.

As you can see, this comprehensive publication is a long-overdue resource for those of us practicing in the field of subcontractor law. It is an amazing “first-step” as this new legal field is accepted and defined by the legal profession, legal educators and construction professionals.  Mark Cobb was honoured and thrilled to have been a part of this seminal text in his field, and he greatly enjoyed the ability to work with some of the leading subcontractor law practitioners in the country.

If you are interested in more information regarding this subject or if you would like to obtain your own copy of Construction Subcontracting: A Comprehensive Practical and Legal Guide, then please contact us today.  If you would like to purchase your own copy of this useful tool directly from the publisher, please click here > >