Front-End Alignment: The Tool for Preventing Design and Construction Claims

• Pages: 7-13
• Date: 01 January 2026
• Published date: 01 January 2026
• Author: Ava J. Abramowitz
• Subject Matter: Derecho Público y Administrativo

Published in The Construction Lawyer Volume 45, Number 1, ©2026 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 Winter 2026

7

Front-End Alignment: The Tool for Preventing Design and

Construction Claims

By Ava J. Abramowitz, Esq., Hon. AIA

Ava J. Abramowitz is a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council, a founding fellow of the American

College of Construction Lawyers, and recipient of the ABA Forum on Construction Law’s Cornerstone

Award.

Every owner has aspirations for their projects. For my husband and me, it is safety first. No one has

ever been injured on any of our 18 design and construction projects, and everyone who works on

our projects knows of our commitment to safety from day one. We tell everyone, “If you have com-

peting goals—budget and safety? Your safety comes first. Schedule and safety? Your safety comes first.

You are responsible for your own safety, true, but keeping you safe is a shared value of everyone involved

in this project.” Everyone will work better to that end. And they do—from the lowest laborer to each of

the signatories to the contract.

That is the way we build alignment. From the get-go. From the front-end start and every day thereafter.

With everyone. By our words. By our conduct. In good times and bad, we send one message to all: We

are a team with loyalty to the project’s success, and everyone—owner, architect, engineer, contractor, and

sub—is an integral part of that team. Yes, each has their own skillset, but only when each party commits

to consciously mesh their skillset with those of the others can magic be made. And we are committed to

magic—that is, the creation of a one-of-a-kind building, beautifully designed and constructed with no

change orders, no construction change directives, no claims of any kind, and so special that it is worthy of

competing for a design award. This article spells out how we do it and invites all readers to try front-end

alignment out for themselves.

Stop. I hear you. You have two big questions that won’t sit silent until I answer them: Who pays for this?

And isn’t it expensive? The answers are more complicated than the questions. Bear with me.

At the simplest level, the answers are “The owner pays for it” and “Yes. It is expensive.” But at a higher

level, the answers are that front-end alignment and the money that pays for it are the best investments

anyone involved in design and construction can make. These investments pay for themselves in project

success, professional reputation, new business, repeat business, and peace of mind.

Don’t believe me? Let’s talk about claims.

Claims—Everyone’s Worst Nightmare

I was deputy general counsel of the American Institute of Architects in the mid-1980s, a time when design

and constructions claims were so out of control that between 1984 and 1985 the number of insurance

companies nationwide oering architects professional liability insurance coverage shrank from 13 to 2.1

Fortunately for architects, the larger of the two extant carriers, CNA/Schinnerer, operated AIA’s own

commended insurance program, which at that time was estimated to insure 60 percent of the architects

then insured.