California Construction Lawyers Wickwire Gavin Home

Wickwire Gavin, P.C. has substantial experience in drafting and negotiating complex project contract documents - particularly on projects using EPC and design-build delivery methods, and regularly provides clients with advice on how to administer those contracts when issues arise during project execution.

One of the areas in which we are best known is the heavy process industry, where we have worked on a substantial number of power generation, petrochemical, food manufacturing and similar facilities. These projects typically share many common attributes - EPC forms of contracting, performance guarantees, complicated equipment interfaces and intensive in-the-field piping requirements. We have had the good fortune of working not only on projects around the United States, but also on many projects around the world, including Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, China, Malaysia), Africa (Nigeria, Lesotho), South America (Colombia, Peru, Venezuela), Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala. As a result, our lawyers, many of whom already have engineering degrees and technical, construction management backgrounds, are well-versed in the nuances of terminology, how these projects are built and the practical issues associated with their development.

REPRESENTATIVE CLIENTS

Wickwire Gavin's client base in the power generation, petrochemical, and process industries is largely oriented to owners and developers, including:

Our work for these clients primarily relates to assisting their project teams in drafting and negotiating the design and construction contracts associated with development efforts. Many of these contracts are EPC or design-build in nature, although we have also negotiated turbine purchase agreements with most of the major turbine vendors (including General Electric, Westinghouse, ABB and Toshiba), construction management contracts and operations and maintenance contracts. This role as a special construction counsel may entail working side-by-side with in-house counsel for our clients, or may entail our working directly with the business and technical personnel involved in the transaction. On project-financed deals, we regularly work in conjunction with the outside project counsel for the project, who will take the lead in drafting power purchase, fuel supply and other project agreements, while we take the lead in drafting and negotiating the contracts that are unique to construction and operations.

When problems arise during contract execution, we have been called upon to represent our owner-developer clients in dispute proceedings. This work frequently starts with determining how to best protect the client's position (drafting or reviewing ongoing project correspondence) and then developing a negotiation strategy to preserve this position. If negotiations fail, Wickwire Gavin has been part of the dispute resolution team, often taking the lead in the mediation, arbitration and litigation proceedings. Dispute resolution work for owner-developer clients will often entails supporting our clients' in-house litigation departments or working with their outside general counsel, who serve as lead litigation counsel with our firm taking a lead on technical and construction-related aspects of the case.

While our work in this industry is predominately for owners and developers, Wickwire Gavin has on occasion represented EPC contractors and subcontractors when we can do so without creating conflicts with our core base of owner-developer clients. This work has largely been on major disputes, where we will be lead counsel on behalf of the client.