Josh Leavitt concentrates his practice in construction law, including disputes, construction industry contracts, and counseling on construction industry risk. He has over 25 years of construction law experience. Mr. Leavitt is an elected Fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers.
On the disputes side, Mr. Leavitt has handled a wide variety of claims, often relating to defective design and construction, scheduling, delay, disruption, interference, efficiency loss, out of sequence work, mechanics lien, wrongful termination, extra work, change orders, fraud, construction lending, insurance coverage, bonding, green building/sustainability, and commercial lease disputes. His experience is evenly divided between mediation, arbitration and traditional litigation.
He has represented owners, contractors, architects, engineers, manufacturers and commercial tenants (including some of the world’s largest contractors and design professionals) in connection with matters involving dozens of buildings systems and technologies, ranging from cases involving the design and construction of stone cladding on high-rise and super tall buildings to oil refineries and alternative
energy plants to a prominent sports stadium. He has defended and cross-examined numerous types of expert witnesses, including structural, mechanical, soil, instrumentation, control system, process and chemical engineers, a variety of roofing consultants, scheduling and damages experts, and architects and builders of varying specialties.
Mr. Leavitt brings to his construction disputes practice substantial experience in litigating general commercial disputes in other industries. Examples include a successful two-week trial in a highly publicized will contest, and prosecuting and defending temporary restraining order litigation in a variety of commercial and trade secret misappropriation settings. Mr. Leavitt also was part of the team representing mutual fund industry defendants in class action lawsuits and industry-wide government investigations, and the team representing an audit firm in a claim by regulators that an audit opinion masked a “deepened insolvent” position that led to the then largest reinsurance company liquidation in
Illinois history. Additionally, he is experienced in electronic discovery issues.
On the transaction side, Mr. Leavitt counsels clients on delivery system selection, contract negotiation, risk management and licensing matters. Mr. Leavitt’s construction law experience is also called upon in corporate counseling to identify and mitigate risk, including in connection with due diligence efforts in M&A transactions, including for one of the world’s largest contractors.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Mr. Leavitt has authored numerous articles for leading construction law publications.
PRESENTATIONS
Mr. Leavitt lectures on construction and design law topics, including delay and disruption claims, construction damages, liability of design professionals and contractors, electronic discovery, successful mediation and arbitration strategies, wrongful termination, construction defects, claims prevention techniques, negotiating and drafting contracts changes to industry form contracts, advanced and emerging delivery system choices, construction law issues on global infrastructure and P3 projects, construction insurance, green building/sustainability development and due diligence in construction industry acquisitions. Since 2004 he has been a panelist for Practising Law Institute’s leading national construction law symposium in New York and since 2007, a panelist for Practising Law Institute’s Commercial Real Estate Institute. He has also presented to the prestigious Engineering and Construction Risk Institute.