We approach procurement and contracts as the basis for the relationship between parties, and therefore as a valuable management tool to influence behavior and align incentives throughout project execution. We advise clients on settling claims and help them find opportunities to retain value during contract closeout.

Institutional and Private Investment Disputes

We help our clients design contracts that support project success by establishing terms that direct the project execution. We support clients globally and across industries to get the most out of their contracts along the full lifecycle by shifting the focus toward contracts as active management tools. We help our clients have the strongest possible starting point for their large projects by establishing a tailored procurement strategy, structuring contract-award negotiations to realize early cost savings and building the required management infrastructure. For clients with large portfolios of smaller projects, we evaluate potential bundling strategies and partnership models that help streamline concepts. Well-structured claim and counter-claim strategies have helped our clients achieve average claim settlement rates significantly below the original claimed value.

Multi-Million Dollar Investment Projects—often require once-in-a-lifetime commitments of resources and capital. Yet, sixty percent of projects exceed budgets and schedules. The consequences for both owners and contractors can be disastrous. For owners, overruns not only affect their bottom line, but also lead to squandered business opportunities and compromised credibility. On the other hand, contractors who exceed budgets and schedules erode resources, profits, and perhaps most importantly, client trust. In our experience, carefully planned projects can succeed, if both parties’ objectives and incentives are properly aligned and communicated, and when best practices for project delivery are consistently applied.

We help clients plan, execute, and in some cases, rescue multimillion-dollar projects. Supported by our project management teams and our broad network of external experts, our global team of consultants constantly tests and refines its proprietary tools and solutions. To ensure the long-term success, we work closely with clients to build their capabilities at every stage. Our on-the-ground experience and deep knowledge of functional topics, such as organizational effectiveness, critical path method, risk-management, and earned value management, uniquely positions us to support both project owners and contractors. We design organizations and team structures that match the scope of a project, the contracting strategy, and the complexity of a client’s portfolio. We also take a holistic look at their existing teams to identify talent gaps and develop actions plans for recruiting or developing talent. In addition, we help put advanced, innovative tools and processes in place to streamline processes and enable a more rigorous approach to decision making.

Government-Sponsored Enterprises

Successful projects are rooted in and guided by a strong business case. Unfortunately, in our experience, design and construction issues can quickly hijack projects, and decision makers can lose sight of investment goals. Many owners lack the resources and experience to manage contractors and at the same time, protect their broader business objectives. We support owners planning projects by developing business cases aligned with their long-term strategic objectives, by ensuring rapid and effective decision making through our proprietary earned value management tools, and by performing key analyses to monitor the progress, economics, and risk associated with the project. During execution, we take a hands-on approach to help select and manage contractors, optimize procurement and supply chain strategies, monitor the overall execution of the project, and drive productivity. All the while, we ensure the client’s objective—delivering this project on time and within budget—remains the top priority.

We optimize client performance by engineering sophisticated program and project management frameworks. Our experts deploy integrated planning and scheduling strategies alongside rigorous earned value management to ensure every initiative positions the organization for measurable success. We design robust planning and scheduling succession models and overhaul reporting structures to provide transparency across the project lifecycle. By enhancing owner capabilities, we execute precise cost management, conduct incisive debates on alternative strategies, and mitigate uncertainties before they escalate into claims.

Engineers, Contractors, and Material Suppliers

Construction projects are inherently complicated. To deliver a project according to an owner’s often-changing requirements is particularly challenging. Other factors, such as shortages of experienced project staff, remoteness and complexity of projects, and deteriorating labor conditions (loss of productivity) can add to the challenge. With owners increasingly pushing to transfer project delivery risks to the contractor, decades-old practices of delivering engineering and construction services are no longer sufficient to ensure profitability and owner satisfaction. Drawing on our experience, we find that applying Critical Path Method schedule principles with Earn Value Management at every stage of a project can result in significantly higher margins, and improved client loyalty and trust. To ensure long-term success, we focus on building the client’s skills throughout every stage of the project in a sustainable way.

We address schedule disputes at their inception. We understand how to manage initial project discord to secure interim construction productivity while seeking the final resolution of complicated specifications and contract issues in regard to scheduling. After an issue has been identified, we assist clients with schedule assessments and develop a strategic completion analysis to achieve goals in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Our as-built schedule delay-causation analyses typically compares planned versus actual construction performance on a chronological and cumulative basis, measuring the impact of critical schedule delays in the work on a project at various points in time. Through the use of qualitative and quantitative tools, such as data analyses and benchmarks, management interviews, field observations, and expert assessments, we pinpoint the project status and access the project gaps and improvement opportunities. We present our findings in detailed reports that include supporting documents, exhibits and graphics.

Expert Testimony in Complex Litigation

In matters of high-stakes litigation, our foremost objective is to provide authoritative expert witness testimony that meets the highest standards of legal and technical scrutiny, thereby advancing our clients’ interests. When disputes arise, we undertake a thorough evaluation of commercial and technical considerations, advising clients and their legal representatives on the strategic merits of pursuing settlement negotiations or litigation. Our involvement in settlement proceedings is distinguished by deep subject-matter expertise, ensuring optimal resolution where appropriate. Our team delivers expertise indispensable to matters involving construction failures, design defects, and the analysis of complex systems. We provide corporate clients and their legal counsel with access to highly qualified professionals—including architects, engineers, construction managers, schedulers, financial analysts, accountants, economists, and statisticians—each equipped with extensive sector-specific experience and specialized knowledge pertinent to sophisticated legal challenges.

Throughout the litigation process, we work closely with legal counsel, actively facilitating document discovery, preparing detailed responses to technical interrogatories, and developing targeted deposition questions for both factual and expert witnesses. Our experts attend depositions, participate in mediation and arbitration, and provide strategic guidance at every stage of the proceedings. Our network consists of esteemed experts and professional consultants, further strengthened by formal partnerships with preeminent architectural and engineering firms, thereby enhancing the credibility of our testimony.

Our firm is distinguished by its specialized expertise in the analysis and resolution of schedule delays, disruptions, and productivity losses in construction projects. Employing rigorous methodologies such as Time Impact Analysis, we systematically evaluate the causation and extent of project delays, reconstructing critical as-built schedules and quantifying the effects of unforeseen events with precision. These advanced assessments enable us to provide clients and their legal counsel with robust, defensible expert opinions that substantiate claims for delay-related damages or diminished productivity. Our formal approach ensures the delivery of high-caliber expert testimony and advisory services, facilitating the efficient resolution of disputes through negotiation, mediation, or litigation.