Comments from the Chair

• Pages: 6-8
• Date: 01 July 2025
• Published date: 01 July 2025
• Author: Keith J. Bergeron

Published in The Construction Lawyer Volume 44, Number 3, ©2025 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with

permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any

means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

Forum on Construction Law The Construction Lawyer Summer 2025

6

By Keith J. Bergeron

“Leadership is a responsibility. It’s not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your

charge. Though you may have rank, that doesn’t make you a leader. We call you leader not because you’re

at the top. We call you a leader because you chose to take the risk to go first; first into the unknown,

first into the danger, to protect your people, and to help them achieve more than they thought they were

capable of.” —Simon Sinek

I opened our Forum leadership retreat last summer with this message. It became the overarching

mission of my past two years. In planning for the role of Chair of the ABA Forum on Construction

Law, I read a myriad of “How to Be a Leader” tomes and listened to countless Ted Talks. None of them

succinctly reflected on the critical attributes of leadership for a volunteer organization like ours. Then

the epiphany moment: I recalled a firm retreat where a guest speaker opened my eyes on how to listen

to and communicate with the four basic types of communicators. I have never taken a psychology or

communications course. This presentation changed my view of leadership; it explained the concepts of

four basic types of communicators grouped by colors:

1. Blue—Collaborative people-driven decision-makers

2. Green—Thorough, analytical, data-driven decision-makers

3. Red—Fun-loving, spontaneous, and creative decision-makers

4. Brown—Decisive, action-focused, and direct decision-makers

Many of you who know me will immediately see me as Blue. You are right. I am Blue to the core.

During that same leadership retreat, I led the officers, Governing Committee, and our Division Chairs

through this same exercise to discover how they communicate. Selfishly, I needed to know how best to

communicate with each of them during my year as Chair; but I really wanted them to know how to

communicate with each other to move the Forum forward. Fortunately for me, our current leadership is

made up of other Blues, Greens, a few Reds, but mostly Browns. Successful discussions led to better ways

on how they could achieve more than they expected.

Many people have helped me achieve more than I thought that I could achieve. Our past Forum leaders

saw something in an abundantly social guy who enjoyed the food and late-night life of each program city

while still appearing at those now long-gone, dreaded Division breakfast meetings (usually in the same

clothes from the night before). Despite my zest for life outside of the ballrooms, the Forum allowed me to

serve as the second Chair of the Young Lawyers before that group attained full Division status. If nothing

else, my time with the Young Lawyers enhanced my ability to organize, plan, and throw some epic

networking and social events and expand my group of Forum friends around the country.

Our Editor reminded me of column page limits. So I will not be able to thank each of those who helped

me along this path, but I would be remiss if I didn’t extend my sincere gratitude to Terrie Brookie, who

agreed to take a chance on me and offered me a national program co-Chair position during his year as

Chair. Brookie taught me many things. I cherish one of those lessons: The best relationship in the Forum

is developed between co-Chairs tasked with a national program. The stress and fun to bring a program

to life unites the program co-hairs and GC liaison like no other team in the Forum. My co-Chair, Andrea

Woods, put up with all my shenanigans and extravagant ideas about music in the ballroom, island wear

instead of suits and ties, and umbrella drinks during our Welcome Reception at the Atlantis Paradise

Island resort in the Bahamas. As I reflect, I am amazed that we got so much approved by Brookie and our

COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIR