Stites & Harbison, PLLC

Matt Gillies is a Member in the firm's Louisville office. Matt's practice is concentrated entirely on the construction industry.  He is an active member of the firm's Construction Services Group and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America^® (2009-2012) for Construction Law and Construction Litigation.  Matt provides contract drafting and negotiation services to project participants (owners, engineers, architects, contractors, and suppliers) prior to contract execution.  Additionally, Matt provides litigation and dispute resolution services to project participants involved in disputes in ongoing or completed projects.

Recent Speaking Engagements and Publications

• "Got BIM?," Stites & Harbison, PLLC, Thirsty Thursday, presented with Larry Blackburn, Turner Construction Company, August 25, 2011
• "Changes to ConsensusDOCS improve forms, lawyers say," quoted in article by Nadine M. Post, ENR.com (Engineering News-Record), February 2, 2011
• "Attention Federal Contractors and Subcontractors: Make Room for a New Poster!," Stites & Harbison, PLLC, Client Alert, July 13, 2010
• "Kentucky Mechanic's Lien Law," Construction Lending News, Volume 38, Third Quarter 2009
• "Understanding the AIA Contract Documents and the ConsensusDOCS," Podcast, Structural Engineers Association of Ohio 2009 Annual Conference, September 10, 2009
• "New Concepts of Integrated Project Delivery and Legal Aspects of Building Information Modeling," Health Enterprises Network Facilities seminar, Jeffersonville, Ind., June 18, 2009
• "Contract Language and Risk Management - Understanding Basic Contract Language," North American Steel Construction Conference, Phoenix, Ariz., April 3, 2009
• "Kentucky Construction Law," seminar in Bowling Green, Ky., March 19, 2009
• "Legal Issues in Building Information Modeling," Kentucky AGC Chapter, Lexington, Ky., February 12, 2009
• "Comparison of ConsensusDOCS to AIA Documents from the Steel Fabricators Perspective," Central Fabricators Association, Chicago, Ill., November 11, 2008
• "Legal Considerations When Building Green," Green or Sustainable Construction in Kentucky, Lorman Education Services, Louisville, Ky., October 30, 2008
• Contributing Editor and Hard Hat Case Note Editor for "The Construction Lawyer," The Journal of the ABA Forum on the Construction Industry
• Reviser for Kentucky Law Digest's Dispute Resolution Section
• "Kentucky's New Fairness in Construction Law," Ohio Valley Chapter of the Design-Build Institute of America, Louisville, Ky., September 21, 2007
• "The Fundamentals of Construction Contracting," Lorman Seminars, Louisville, Ky., June 28, 2007
• "The New American Institute of Architects (AIA) Contracts," North American Steel Construction Conference, New Orleans, La., April 18, 2007
• "The New AIA Design-Build Contracts," American Bar Association Forum on the Construction Industry, Scottsdale, Ariz., October 12, 2006
• "Building Your Practice Around the New AIA Design Build Family of Documents," American Bar Association Teleconference and Webcast, November 8, 2005
• "Construction Management and Design-Build in Kentucky," Lorman Seminars, Louisville, Ky., August 26, 2005
• "Minimizing Risks in Construction," presented jointly with Crowe Chizek & Co., Louisville, Ky., June 16, 2005
• "Change Orders in Kentucky," Lorman Seminars, Louisville, Ky., March 30, 2005
• "AIA Contracts in Kentucky," Lexington, Ky., March 9, 2005
• Co-Author, "Duties and Liabilities of the Architect/Engineer to the Contractor and Subcontractor," published in Construction Law Handbook (Aspen 1999)

Before Stites & Harbison

Prior to joining Stites & Harbison, Mr. Gillies served as a Research Assistant to Thomas J. Stipanowich, Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law and one of the nation's leaders in Alternative Dispute Resolution.

In 2001, Mr. Gillies left Stites & Harbison to become associate counsel at Fluor Corporation. At Fluor, Matt was responsible for the drafting and negotiation of contracts valued from $5 million to $110 million. In December 2002, he returned to Stites & Harbison, where he practices in the firm's Construction Service Group. 

Mr. Gillies, a graduate civil engineer, earned his Engineer-in-Training license and worked as a professional project engineer at David Engineering & Construction, Inc. in Louisville prior to attending law school.

More Than Stites & Harbison

Mr. Gillies is active in a number of professional and community organizations, including the American Bar Association's Forum on the Construction Industry, Contract Documents Division (Division 2) Chair, Contributing Editor for The Construction Lawyer, and serves as the ABA's (Division 2) liaison to the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee.  Mr. Gillies also is immediate past-president of the Ohio Valley Region of the Design-Build Institute of America.  Additionally, he is a member of the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Louisville Zoo, Inc.