NORTH CAROLINA’S TOP 10 CONSTRUCTION LAW PRACTICES
Leadership, innovation and
construction industry commitment
results in recognition and insights
North Carolina Construction News staff writer
How do you select the top 10
North Carolina construction law prac-
tices? The question is much easier to
ask than to answer. We took into ac-
count several qualities in determin-
ing which practices should be
included in the list, including: The
number of lawyers focused on con-
struction law, published work and ar-
ticles relating to the industry, and
leadership roles within the Construc-
tion Law Section of the North Car-
olina Bar Association (NCBA), as well
as within relevant specialized con-
struction associations.
It’s hard enough to figure out
which practices should be on this
Top 10 list, so we won’t try to rank
them in any sort of hierarchy. Ac-
cordingly, this listing is alphabetical.
Conner Gwyn Schenck
This well-established firm concen-
trates its practice on construction
law and serving the construction in-
dustry. Through 11 lawyers in offices
in Raleigh and Greensboro, Conner
Gwyn Schenck PLLC serves a wide
range of sectors in the industry. Firm
members have extensive experience
and have leadership roles in con-
struction law and construction indus-
try organizations.
Several lawyers at Conner
Gwyn Schenck are licensed profes-
sional engineers and one is a regis-
tered architect. The lawyers at
Conner Gwyn Schenck regularly
speak at professional, trade and
client-focused organizations, and
have written numerous articles and
publications on construction law.
They are the authors of North Car-
olina Construction Law, a treatise
published by Thomson Reuters.
10 — Fall 2018 — The North Carolina Construction News
Johnston Allison & Hord PA
Attorneys in the Johnston Allison
& Hord Construction Practice Group
serve clients throughout the South-
east, but primarily in North and
South Carolina, with experience in
construction arbitration, mediation
and litigation. Notably, Charlotte-
based attorney B. David Carson is
the immediate past-chair of the
NCBA’s Construction Law Section.
Carson and other attorneys from the
practice have served on industry
boards, authored textbooks on North
Carolina construction and employ-
ment law, OSHA regulations and
construction claims.
Lewis & Rober ts
Lawyers at this Raleigh-based
practice have more than 50 years of
combined experience serving North
Carolina’s AEC community. Lewis &
Roberts provides “common-sense,
results-oriented, cost effective guid-
ance at every junction of a construc-
tion project, from contract drafting
and negotiation, to real-time project
counseling, to formal dispute resolu-
tion when claims can’t be resolved at
the project level.” The firm’s clients
include local and regional general
contractors, specialty subs, private
owners, engineering firms, and
bonding companies.
Lewis & Roberts focuses on seek-
ing resolutions to legal challenges
before they need to go to court.
However, if the matter cannot be set-
tled without litigation, its attorneys
have “the construction knowledge
and trial experience needed to
achieve results in mediation, arbitra-
tion and litigation.”
Lawyer Matt Bouchard is currently
secretary of the NCBA’s Construction
Law Section.
Nexsen Pruet
Nexsen Pruet is one of the Caroli-
nas’ largest law firms. Its compre-
hensive and extensive construction
law team can also draw on other
specialists for complex cases. It has
offices in Charlotte, Raleigh and
Greensboro, as well as Charleston,
Columbia, Greenville, Hilton Head
and Myrtle Beach, SC.
Nexsen Pruet lawyers have broad
industry experience. They can handle
pre-construction planning, bid pack-
aging, project financing, litigation, in-
cluding multi-party and complex
construction related litigation in state
and federal courts, mediation and ar-
bitration proceedings, mechanics’
liens and bond claims, and surety
and insurance matters, as well as
many other challenging issues.
Practice group leader Harper Heck-
man (also office managing partner of
the Greensboro office), is a Fellow in
the American College of Construction
Lawyers. The construction team of
Nexsen Pruet is ranked as a national
tier one firm by US News & World Re-
port “Best Lawyers.”
The construction team offers regu-
lar seminars for the construction in-
dustry. Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP
Partner Robert Jason Herndon is
chair of the NCBA’s Construction Law
Section, leading approximately 600
full and part-time construction
lawyers throughout the state. The
practice has extensive capabilities
within construction and development
law. Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP
Shumaker is a 260 lawyer firm with
offices in Charlotte, North Carolina,
Charleston, South Carolina, Toledo
and Columbus, Ohio, Tampa and
Sarasota Florida and Bloomfield Hills,
Michigan. The construction lawyers
at Shumaker represent all participants
on commercial construction projects,
including lenders, owners, develop-
ers, general contractors, subcontrac-
tors, sureties and suppliers. The
Shumaker construction law attorneys
have substantial experience on all
types of commercial construction
projects, whether private, city, county,
state or federal construction projects,
and many different types of project
delivery systems.
That experience covers, among
other things, licensing, competitive
bidding, bid mistakes and bid dis-
putes, contract drafting and negotia-
tion, change order disputes, delays,
acceleration, differing site conditions,
defective work claims, construction
claims, liens and bonds. The Shu-
maker construction law attorneys
have successfully prosecuted and de-
fended construction disputes in both
litigation and arbitration proceedings
throughout the United States.
Thomas & Battle also has offices in
Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Its attorneys have experience in
utility projects involving power plants,
natural gas facilities, and sewer
pipelines, as well as other infrastruc-
ture projects, such as roads, bridges,
tunnels and overpasses.
Young Moore and Henderson, P.A.
This Raleigh-based practice’s
construction lawyers focus on
knowing their clients and the
construction industry, combining
an interest in alternative dispute
resolution concepts with a
recognition that, if it is necessary
to fight all the way to trial, the best
strategy is to truly know and
understand the client’s circum-
stances before embarking on
the legal journey.
Lawyers Jay Tobin and Bob
deRosset focus on construction
law within the 40-lawyer practice.
See story page 13.
Wall Templeton & Haldrup, P.A.
Wall Templeton Attorneys has of-
fices in Raleigh and Charleston, SC,
with an extensive construction law
focus. Founding shareholder Keith
Coltrain has been recognized for six
consecutive years as one of The Best
Lawyers in America – a listing first
published in 1983 in the leading na-
tional publication for attorney refer-
rals. The practice represents clients
from all industry perspectives, includ-
ing owners, sureties, insurers, con-
tractors, subcontractors, designers
and suppliers. “The issues we tackle
are numerous – construction and con-
tract disputes, acceleration and delay
claims, risk assessment and avoid-
ance, abandonment claims, disrup-
tion claims, consequential damages,
insurance coverage disputes, eco-
nomic and catastrophic loss, employ-
ment, debt collection,” the practice
says in a statement.
Some of Wall Templeton’s attor-
neys have engineering backgrounds
and real-world experience in the con-
struction industry, meaning they can
truly understand the issues from prac-
tical as well as legal perspectives.
(See story page 12.)
Ward and Smith P.A.
This practice has a strong con-
struction industry focus, with a
scheduled half-day Sept. 30 industry-
related conference in the Research
Triangle Park (RTP). Among other top-
ics, three Ward and Smith attorneys
will present on legal topics such as
construction-related employment law,
including piece-rate compensation,
the top five things to avoid to mini-
mize contract risk, and best practices
for dealing with government investi-
gations. For more information, see
https://www.wardandsmith.com/2018 -construction-conference.
Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC
Bryan G. Scott based in the prac-
tice’s Winston-Salem office, is the
current vice-chair of the NCBA’s Con-
struction Law Section. Spilman,
The North Carolina Construction News — Fall 2018 — 11