Executing the Forum's Strategic Plan: Building the Best Construction Lawyers

• Author: By William Cary Wright
• Pages: 4-5

THE CONSTRUCTION LAWYER4 Volume 42 Issue 2 2022

COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIR

continued on page 45

In 2012, under the leadership of

Adrian Bastinelli, the Forum took

a year to develop its rst ve-year

strategic plan, which was formally

adopted in 2013. This effort was

facilitated by Ava Abramowitz

and vetted at length by the Gov-

erning Committee and Division

Chairs at the 2013 Leadership

Retreat. The mission statement of that initial strategic plan

was simple: The ABA Forum on the Construction Industry:

Building the Best Construction Lawyers. The vision was

broad: “When people think ‘construction lawyer,’ they think

of the Forum rst.” The strategic plan was updated in 2017

in Wendy Venoit’s year as Chair of the Forum, with minor

tweaks to reect the name change from “Forum on Con-

struction Industry” to “Forum on Construction Law.” The

mission remained the same-- Building the Best Construc-

tion Lawyers. Under the leadership of Kristine Kubes, the

Governing Committee and Division and the Standing Com-

mittee Chairs began the process of reviewing and revising,

where necessary, the 2017 Strategic Plan. Once adopted, the

revised version of the 2017 Strategic Plan will become the

Forum’s 2023 Strategic Plan. It is anticipated that the 2023

Strategic Plan will be adopted by the Governing Commit-

tee at the Forum’s 2023 Annual Meeting in Vancouver. At

this juncture, I want to share a preview of the 2023 Strate-

gic Plan with the Forum’s valued members.

Based on the work done thus far, the Forum’s Mission

Statement will remain the same: The ABA Forum on Con-

struction Law: Building the Best Construction Lawyers. We

will achieve this through the three pillars of the Forum expe-

rience: People, Publications, and Programs.

People

The Forum currently has 5,477 members, comprised of

3,448 attorney members, 463 associate members, 758 law

students, and 808 paralegals and others. The Forum’s people

are in every state in the United States, as well as in a num-

ber of international jurisdictions. Our membership includes

litigators, transactional lawyers, in-house counsel, dispute

resolution attorneys, administrative lawyers, and more. As

with any organization, our members are our greatest asset,

and the talents of the Forum’s members extend well beyond

what you may expect. For example, as showcased at the

2022 Fall Meeting in Memphis, interspersed in the Forum

ranks was a wide array of musical talent, including Forum

members Eric Berg and Kevin Murphy.

Publications

The Forum’s Publications are second to none, and they

include Under Construction, The Construction Lawyer, and

books and treatises covering all aspects of construction law.

In fact, the Forum has published 55 books since 1997, start-

ing with Sweet on Construction Law. This year alone, the

Publications Committee is anticipating publishing three

books. Many times, as is the case this year, Forum books

play an integral part in our national meetings. The recently

released Construction Trial Deskbook forms the basis of the

trial practicums, which are being held the day before each of

our 2022-2023 national meetings and geared toward younger

attorneys and attorneys that have less trial experience. The

Construction Contracts Book,Third Edition, is the basis for

the 2022 Regional Meetings, which will be held in Washing-

ton, D.C., Dallas, Indianapolis, and San Francisco.

Programs

The combination of the Forum’s people and publications

results in fantastic Forum programs. The 2022-2023 bar year

is no exception. At the 2022 Fall Meeting in Memphis, the

topic was Building the Next Generation--Learning from the

Past. There, past Forum Chairs discussed the experiences

that had the most impact on their practices. These topics

included contract negotiations, presenting and defending

claims, and trial and arbitration tips. Other sessions included

Redesigning Design-Build; First Chair Wanted: How Do I Get

There; Doing Joint Ventures the Right Way (and the Wrong

Way); Lessons Learned: The FIU Pedestrian Bridge Col-

lapse, and many more.

The 2023 Midwinter Meeting will take us back to San

Juan, Puerto Rico. There, the program, Old World Meets

New World: New Solutions to Timeless Problems, will exam-

ine “Old World’ problems and consider how “New World”

solutions and innovations can help modern construction

lawyers deliver efcient and impactful results for their clients.

These sessions will include Rebuilding Puerto Rico – Chal-

lenges of Building on an Island; Remote Sensing: The Eye in

the Sky Difference Maker in Engineering Expert Driven Liti-

gation; And Who’s Going to Build This? Labor, Workforce and

Material Issues: If you Haven’t Seen Them, Ya Will; Adap-

tive Re-Use – Everything Old is New Again; and, Is Modular

Building and Prefabrication the Wave of the Future?

Cary Wright

by Cary Wright

Executing the Forum’s Strategic

Plan: Building the Best Construction

Lawyers