David Hatem was recently featured in Engineer News-Record. The article “Will Claims by Contractors on Big Design-Build Projects Ever End?”, written by Richard Korman, discusses the major trend in fixed-price design-build project disputes that have resulted in significant financial and profit losses for some of the largest U.S. contractors over the last decade.

Some of David’s quotes include:

“Attorney David Hatem, who represents engineers, says the trouble with that is there is not much established legal precedent of the standard of care for design work done for an infrastructure design-build proposal.”

and

“Hatem says more disputes are likely.’Absent fundamental improvements in public owner procurement and contractual approaches, there is no legitimate or credible reason to believe that the problematic claims on those types of projects will abate,’ he states”.

To read the full article, click here.

The article also highlights the Professional Liability Taskforce led by David which included roughly three dozen design firms and insurance professionals to collaborate and search for ways to resolve many of the problems that have emerged with design-build infrastructure risks. Click here to read the resulting white paper “Project-Specific Professional Liability Insurance on Design-Build and Public-Private Partnership Projects in North America“.