Construction Law

David Ratterman, Angela Stephens, Greg Parsons and Joe Hardesty

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Clients, both national and regional in scope, involved in complex and difficult construction projects turn to the attorneys in Stites & Harbison’s Construction Service Group for a combination of top-flight legal credentials and practical, real-world experience.  Our construction attorneys include former contractors, construction owners, civil and mechanical engineers and journeymen crafts-people.  Three are Fellows of the American College of Construction Lawyers—an honor reserved for the top 1% of the construction bar in the U.S.

When you are ready to meet the challenges and rigorous standards for sustainable design and construction, we are ready to help.  Several of our attorneys are LEED Accredited Professionals, and the firm is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Construction trade associations and industry organizations count on Stites & Harbison's advice for a wide range of topics, including corporate governance and membership, contracts, employment law, benefit plans, tax, code interpretation and enforcement, antitrust issues and intellectual property rights.  Among the construction trade associations that Stites & Harbison represents include the American Institute of Steel Construction, National Steel Bridge Alliance and the Associated General Contractors of Kentucky.

We are also members of other industry organizations, serving as officers, board members, authors and keynote speakers.  Trade associations, professional societies and members of the organized national construction bar regularly recruit us to provide articles and educational programs to their members.  Our attorneys participated in the preparation of American Institute of Steel Construction Codes, Standards and Specifications and have consulted with the American Institute of Architects and the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee on formation of the standard construction documents by those organizations.

One of our attorneys, Stephen M. Reams, serves as a national instructor for the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA). He teaches DBIA certification courses throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Other industry contributions from the group include:

  • Negotiating and Structuring Construction Contracts: Leading Lawyers on Protecting Client Interests, Managing Risk, and Understanding Recent Trends and Developments (Inside the Minds), Anne Gorham is a contributing author of the chapter "Navigating Construction Contracts: Comparison and Risk Allocation of Standard Forms, Aspatore Books, May 2009
  • The Construction Contracts Book, Stephen M. Reams is co-author of a chapter concerning ConsensusDOCS, published by ABA Construction Law Forum, second edition, summer 2008
  • Kentucky Construction Law, written and edited by the construction attorneys of Stites & Harbison, published by HLK Global Communications, 2007
  • Discovery Deskbook for Construction Law Disputes, Buckner Hinkle, Jr., is a co-editor and chapter author, Robert M. Connolly is a chapter author, published by ABA Publishing, 2006.
  • The Design/Build Deskbook, Anne E. Gorham is a co-editor (first, second and third editions) and Ryan R. Loghry is the Indiana chapter author (third edition), published by the ABA Forum on the Construction Industry, 2004.
  • AGC Contract Documents Handbook, Buckner Hinkle, Jr., is a contributing author, Aspen Publishers, 2003.
  • Fifty State Construction Lien and Bond Law, Buckner Hinkle, Jr., is a contributing author, Aspen Law & Business, 2000-present.
  • State-By-State Guide To Architect, Engineer and Contractor Licensing, Buckner Hinkle, Jr., is a contributing author, Aspen Publishers, 1998-present.
  • Fifty State Public Construction Contracting, Buckner Hinkle, Jr., is a contributing author, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996.

Our experience in industries such as aviation, power and energy, healthcare,  and horizontal construction allow us to understand the practical and the legal issues that can affect your projects.  We have worked with companies from coast - to - coast, handling everything from front-end transactional work to project closeout to complex litigation.  With nationally recognized expertise in construction law and hands-on experience in the business, we are uniquely qualified to address the needs of construction clients.

A partial list of representative transactional and adversarial construction engagements in which the members of the group have been involved is listed below: