Stites & Harbison, PLLC

The focus on sustainable construction materials is creating an even greater demand for structural steel. This material is know for its strength, availability,  nearly 100% recycled content, and the design flexibility to allow future adaptive reuse of steel structures . With increases in the world-wide demand for steel,  and increased national attention on sustainability, the opportunities available to those in the steel industry are unlimited.

For more than 30 years Stites & Harbison attorneys have worked closely with companies that possess the vision, creativity and desire to take the structural steel industry into the future.

Construction attorney David Ratterman has been an officer or advisor to 12 industry trade organizations and professional societies involved in the structural steel industry. Since 1989, he has served as Secretary and General Counsel of the American Institute of Steel Construction and also serves on that body's "Code of Standard Practice" Committee and as counsel to its National Steel Bridge Alliance. He was an advisor to the FEMA Task Forces that investigated structural damage caused by the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake and the September 11, 2001, collapse of the World Trade Center towers.   David has assembled a team of Stites & Harbison construction attorneys, many with engineering and construction backgrounds, who, as a group,  have represented more members of the domestic structural steel industry than any law firm in the United States.

• In several separate actions, assisted a large, industrial EPC contractor and a number of steel fabricators across the country recover force majeure damages arising as a result of the 2004/2005 hurricane seasons, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other volatility in the global construction economy.
• Assisting various construction professional societies and industry trade organizations integrate their members into utilization of building information modeling systems (BIM).
• Consulted with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on construction issues related to the Northridge, California, earthquake and the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
• Consulted with domestic steel suppliers and steel bridge fabricators in connection with the reconstruction of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge in California.
• Successfully litigated a case for a Minnesota bridge painting contractor, its subcontractor and its surety against a state Transportation Cabinet, and achieved a $12 million settlement for our client—the largest settlement paid in the history of the Transportation Cabinet.
• Represented steel fabricator in multi-million dollar arbitration arising out of construction of a large paper products manufacturing facility in Missouri.
• Represented steel fabricator in negotiations associated with $80 million structural steel contract for high rise in New York City.
• Represent regional and national construction trade associations in contract negotiations, anti-trust and international trade matters.
• Represented American Institute of Steel Construction in extended evidentiary hearings before the U.S. Department of Labor. These hearings were held in connection with proposed OSHA regulations affecting the fabricated structural steel industry.
• Mounted challenge in D.C. federal court challenging the enforcement of a federal OSHA regulation that sought to impose increased restrictions on the steel fabrication industry.
• Represented contractor on an "as equal" claim against the Army Corps of Engineers involving underwater re-oxygenation system and flotation of same behind the Russell Dam in eastern Georgia.
• Represented subcontractor in a $1,500,000 claim on an office building in Durham, North Carolina.  The project involved more than 3,000 change orders.