Professional Experience
Ben Patrick represents companies in the construction industry, including general contractors, engineers, architects, and sureties. He has represented companies varying in size from small contractors and design firms to ENR Top 50 Firms in mediations, litigations and arbitrations with claims ranging from under $100,000 to over $300,000,000.
Ben has represented clients on projects in every sector of the construction industry, including heavy civil (interstate highways, local highways and streets), industrial (manufacturing facilities, wastewater treatment plants, and pump stations), power and energy (ethanol refineries and combined-cycle power plants), commercial (mixed-use developments, mid-rise office towers, and retail developments), health care (hospitals and elder care facilities), education (universities, colleges, and primary schools), and residential (condominium construction and conversion, planned communities, and single-family homes).
He has litigated over a dozen cases that involved the application of CalTrans’ specifications, both against CalTrans and against other public agencies who use CalTrans’ specifications.
Ben has represented sureties in matters across the United States. He has defended payment and performance bond claims totaling more than $100,000,000. He has worked with sureties to structure financing agreements with troubled principals in order to minimize or avoid losses on bond programs worth tens of millions of dollars. Ben has represented sureties in numerous high-profile, high-risk litigations against public owners. Ben’s clients appreciate his practical, frank, and strategic advice in handling surety matters of all sizes.
Ben frequently counsels clients on insurance issues, including coverage questions, risk management, and contract requirements. He has counseled general contractors, designers, sureties, and industry trade groups across the country on insurance coverage questions for all major insurance products. He has worked as supervisory counsel on matters defended by insurance companies in order to ensure that coverage issues were appropriately addressed, strategies for maximizing coverage were pursued, and that counsel appointed by the insurer were appropriately handling the litigation.
He is also recognized as a national expert and leading author on intellectual property rights in the construction industry. In 2004, he was counsel for the defendant architect in the largest construction copyright infringement lawsuit ever brought in the United States. Following three years of litigation and six weeks of trial, the jury returned a verdict finding no liability on the part of his client.
Ben has also counseled clients on government procurement regulations and compliance, including bidding requirements, subcontractor listing obligations, licensure issues, allowable/reimbursable costs, and bid protests.