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Florida Construction Attorney Garners Appointment to
ACCL Board of Governors
By Mark Shaw
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Stuart Sobel
Attorney-at-Law |
tuart H. Sobel of Siegfried, Rivera, Lerner, De La Torre & Sobel P.A. was appointed to the board of governors by the American College of Construction Lawyers earlier this year. He was elected a Fellow of ACCL in 2004. Based in his firm’s Coral Gables office, Sobel focuses his law practice on national arbitration and litigation of construction-related issues. His clients include large real estate developments and steel and curtain-wall contractors.
ACCL is a national organization of lawyers who have demonstrated skill, experience and a high standard of professional and ethical conduct in the practice or teaching of construction law.
Constructor: This appointment is quite an honor. How did it come about?
Sobel: The best part of this is that it comes from an invite-only group of people who have practiced construction law for at least the past decade and demonstrated their experience in the field. There’s only about 160 to 170 Fellows in the U.S. and they invited me to sit on their board. It’s always nice to be recognized by your colleagues, and this is a pretty distinguished group.
Constructor: You’ve been practicing construction law for many years now. Do have some good advice for contractors who want to stay out of your office or, worse, court?
Sobel: Yes. Try to get past the personalities and the noise of the dispute and get to the root of the problem. Ask yourself: ‘What is the nub of this dispute?’ Then address that. Don’t waste time going after issues that don’t matter. Most cases could be resolved much earlier if the people involved could just apply more common sense and people savvy and do a better job of communicating with each other.
Constructor: What changes have you seen in construction contracts or processes that are making life easier for contractors?
Sobel: BIM. Building information modeling, because it helps communication and allows designers and trades to do their work virtually, identifying conflicts and risks before they become difficult and expensive to change.
Any time you can create a better framework for resolving risk issues and minimize the potential for nonproductive energy, that helps any project. But BIM requires a huge amount of trust. You’re sharing your drawings with everyone else on the team. That can create trust-based issues as much as construction issues, but it does encourage real partnering. Twenty years ago, partnering was kind of a joke. You were only my partner when my hand was in your pocket. But BIM creates real partnering because it allows people to share risk.
Constructor: What keeps you in this business after so long?
Sobel: I’ve tried other types of cases in my career. I practiced for 12 years with my brother: civil rights cases, car crashes, you name it. But I like being in the courtroom the best. So little of what we do in life is black and white. My practice allows me to be honest with my clients. I only take those cases to court where I’m on the right side of it. My final advice to all of them is just tell the truth and you’ll be fine.
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Sobel’s Six Best Ways to Stay Out of My Office
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1. Negotiate a fair contract:
> Scope, price, time-realistic
> Anticipate and allocate risks |
2. Build from complete, coordinated construction documents:
> Update schedules regularly and realistically |
3. Attend and participate in jobsite meetings:
> Insist on accurate, timely minutes
> Obtain commitments |
4. Document changes, events and incidents at the time they occur:
> Insist on communication and accountability
> Include in every communication what is required, what the deadlines are and what the consequences are |
5. Create and maintain dialogue with project participants:
> Make your positions known
> Insist on timely responses |
6. Address and resolve disputes proactively, reasonably:
> Resolve disputes during construction |
Stuart Sobel is a shareholder of Siegfried, Rivera, Lerner, De La Torre & Sobel, a legal firm specializing in trial, arbitration and appeals of business and tort disputes with a particular emphasis on construction-related litigation. Sobel is certified by the Florida Bar as a specialist in construction law and has tried and arbitrated dozens of complex construction disputes nationwide.
He received his undergraduate degree in economics from Brown University and his J.D. from the University of Miami. He is admitted to the Florida bar and Georgia bar, and U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida. Sobel has published numerous articles related to trial and arbitration in construction and lectured to professional and trade organizations.
Email: ssobel@siegfriedlaw.com
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