Construction and Real Estate Seminar

Understanding the pros and cons of arbitration versus litigation helps organizations make informed decisions when selecting dispute resolution processes in their contracts and enables them to think strategically in legal disputes. This session highlights key considerations and features of each forum, including cost, speed, confidentiality, enforceability, and procedural flexibility.
Heather Hawkins

While most construction and real estate companies are built to deliver projects and generate annual income, few are intentionally structured to create long‑term, transferable enterprise value that attracts buyers, fuels growth, and gives owners real, strategic options. In this session, we will look at what buyers actually pay for, why so many firms leave value on the table, and how you can start engineering a company that commands a premium in the market.
Ben Helwig

Recent legislative updates to Ohio’s public construction statutes reflect targeted efforts to streamline procurement, improve billing efficiency, and align the statutory framework with established industry practices. This session will provide a practical breakdown of changes that affect bidding thresholds, one-step CMR procurement, retainage and escrow requirements, and updated public improvement notice procedures.
John Gambill

Construction projects are fraught with financial risk to contractors. Obstacles include delays, underperforming subcontractors, unforeseen conditions, and force majeure events, as well as changes in scope, and market conditions, and even owner defaults. This session will suggest simple contract terms that can help contractors manage those risks and avoid or limit their liability for monetary damages, non-reimbursable costs, and other erosions of profit.
Peter Hahn

This presentation will explain the purpose and key elements of construction indemnification provisions, highlighting how they allocate risk between owners, contractors, and subcontractors. We will discuss common clause types, typical triggers and limits (including indemnity scope, defense obligations, and insurance interplay), and practical drafting strategies to balance liability and reduce disputes. By the end, you will have clear guidance for negotiating and implementing balanced indemnities that protect your project while remaining commercially reasonable.
Christopher (Kit) Houston

This session will break down the most pressing immigration issues impacting construction employers in 2026, from compliance obligations to sponsorship considerations. We will also cover the latest developments surrounding Ohio’s E-Verify Workforce Integrity Act and what it means for your hiring and documentation practices.
Staci Jenkins

Over the past year, a myriad Ohio case law developments have impacted the construction industry. This session will give attendees insight into the enforcement of contractual time limitations on claims, clarification on certain procedural mechanics’ lien issues, regulatory oversight risk from local inspections, and a discussion of the recent United States Supreme Court decision on tariffs.
Eric Kjellander

When purchasing recently-completed commercial projects, buyers have limited recourse against the seller with respect to construction defects that are discovered after closing.  In this session, we will discuss some workarounds to ensure that the buyer is able to step in to the seller’s shoes to pursue the same remedies available to seller with respect to the project.
Ed Leader

This session will discuss how cost overruns are handled in real estate development joint ventures.  We will focus on how overruns are handled differently in common equity joint venture arrangements, as opposed to preferred equity joint venture arrangements.
Joseph McVicker

Construction employers face unique employment law challenges, including wage and hour compliance, worker classification, safety obligations, and managing a transient workforce in the digital era. We will highlight the most common legal pitfalls in the construction industry and offer practical strategies to mitigate risk and reduce liability.
George Musekamp

California’s evolving climate disclosure laws—and similar measures emerging in other states—may soon require large companies doing business there to publicly report greenhouse gas emissions and climate‑related financial risks, even if their core operations are based in the Midwest. This session will explain how the region’s construction and real estate firms could be drawn into these regimes through revenue‑based applicability thresholds and expanding supply‑chain reporting obligations.
Christy Nageleisen

Although often overlooked by landlords and tenants when preparing and negotiating leases, the work letter is a frequent source of disputes that can lead to delivery (and rent commencement) delays, gaps in scope of work, and cost overruns. This presentation will cover common drafting errors in work letters and best practices for avoiding or mitigating disputes.
Stephen Nesbitt

Construction insurance is one of the most important and effective risk management tools available for anyone involved in the design and construction of improvements to real estate.  Sometimes an afterthought or just copied from prior projects, lack of attention to insurance requirements can mean the difference between a viable project and an abandoned one.  This session will be a quick primer on insurance types and limits for various sized projects, along with a few examples of recent claims made worse by unfortunate insurance decisions before anyone put pencil to paper or set foot on the site.
Eric Singer