Blank Rome partners Justin N. Leonelli and Graham R. Cronogue will serve as panelists at the Society of Construction Law (“SCL”) North America’s Navigating Construction Disputes: Practical Strategies from Claim to Resolution Regional Workshop. Blank Rome is pleased to sponsor and host the workshop, which will be held Tuesday, November 10, 2026, at our Washington, D.C., office, with a virtual attendance option available. Justin and Graham organized the workshop along with Pasha Ameli from SCL.

About the Program

This half-day hybrid arbitration workshop unfolds across three sequential sessions that trace a construction claim from contract signature through final award.

Sessions:

Preventing and Positioning Claims Before a Dispute Arises

The panel will focus on front-end protection—drafting and negotiating the provisions that most often decide a claim’s fate (notice requirements, change order procedures, no-damage-for-delay clauses, flow-downs, and dispute resolution mechanisms); maintaining the contemporaneous records that form the evidentiary backbone of any claim (daily logs, correspondence, schedule updates, cost tracking, and photographs); and recognizing emerging issues such as differing site conditions, design deficiencies, and schedule disruptions, early enough to preserve rights in real time without damaging the working relationship.

  • Daniel Miktus, Akerman
  • Sandra Marquez, Crum & Forster
  • Justin Leonelli, Blank Rome
  • Michael Fazzari, Miller Thomson

Managing Active Construction Disputes

This session will cover claim development: building the entitlement case by identifying breached obligations and analyzing contractual risk allocation; proving causation through CPM delay analysis, concurrent delay assessment, and techniques for isolating overlapping disruptions; and quantifying damages across direct costs, extended general conditions, lost productivity (measured mile, total cost, and modified total cost), Eichleay home office overhead, lost profits, and consequential damages, along with the defenses—betterment, failure to mitigate, and contractual liability limits—that must be anticipated.

  • Anamaria Popescu, Ankura
  • Abbie Sprague, Fluor
  • Jon Goddard, Ashurst Perkins Coie
  • Graham Cronogue, Blank Rome

Resolving Construction Disputes—Mediation, Arbitration, and Litigation

Panelists will discuss forum strategy and presentation, weighing cost, speed, confidentiality, provisional relief, and appellate rights when choosing among negotiation, mediation, dispute review boards, arbitration, and litigation; maximizing early resolution through well-prepared mediation statements, well-timed mediation, and standing dispute review boards; and presenting a construction case for decision—selecting and challenging arbitrators, managing voluminous document and electronic discovery, deploying scheduling, cost, and technical experts, translating complex narratives for decision-makers without industry background, and navigating post-award enforceability and the limited grounds for vacatur.

  • Matthew Finn, Ankura
  • Om Jahagirdar, Amtrak
  • Riccardo Del Vecchio, Miller Thomson
  • Jacqueline Vega Cintron, JD, AAA

CLE credit is available.

For more information and to register, please visit the event webpage.