Guided by the principle that "a stitch in time saves nine," we draft prime and subconsultant agreements to manage risks while protecting the interests of our clients. We review owner and contractor-supplied agreements for indemnity, standard of care, insurance coverage, scope of work, risk allocation, and other critical provisions, safeguarding your business and personal assets while mutually meeting the needs of all parties involved.

Our firm has successfully negotiated agreements ranging from straightforward deals to complex, multi-party, multimillion-dollar projects, striking a balance between legal concerns and practical business realities. In particular, we review and assess indemnity clauses to ensure that the clauses are fair and comply with California law.

Based on our many years in the business, we are familiar with the contract provisions that can become “risk transfer” nightmares, including the duty to defend, indemnity obligations, warranties, guarantees, lender certificates, limitation of liability clauses, and many more.  Often, owner-provided contracts try to raise the standard of care from the following accepted definition: Design professionals provide services consistent with the professional skill and care ordinarily provided by such professionals practicing in the same or similar locality under the same or similar circumstances. Owners add words such as the following:  best, highest, fiduciary, utmost, warranty, shall comply, and other unfair language to raise the standard of care to perfection or close to it. We help navigate these murky waters.