Notes from the editor

• Pages: 4-5
• Date: 01 January 2025
• Author: Christopher M. Burke
• Subject Matter: Civil Law

Published in The Construction Lawyer Volume 44, Number 1, ©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 Winter 2025

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By Christopher M. Burke

Christopher M. Burke is senior partner at Varela, Lee, Metz & Guarino, LLP, in Tysons Corner, Virgina.

Welcome to the winter 2025 issue of The Construction Lawyer! I am sure that our readership will enjoy

this issue as it features insightful articles and, as usual, strong case law and legislation review content from

our editorial team. More on those in a moment.

Before turning to the issue content, however, I would like to pump up a Forum program that gets love

but which—in my opinion—still does not receive enough love for its noteworthiness. That program is the

Forum’s Trial Academy, which takes place this year in Dallas, Texas, from March 12-15, 2025. For those

unfamiliar with the program, the Trial Academy is a multi-day hands-on course for attorneys to hone

their trial skills and get real-time feedback from seasoned construction litigators every step of the way. In

recent years, the Trial Academy has even expanded its reach to provide meaningful training to those on

the expert witness side of construction litigation, giving our consultants an opportunity to practice their

testifying skills and work closely with attorneys on trial teams.

The Trial Academy is real experience–for the first two days of the program, attorney-students perform

openings, multiple fact witness direct and cross-examinations, multiple expert witness direct and cross-

examinations, and closings. Expert students hone their testifying skills by testifying in multiple roles

across the first two days. All of these training sessions are accompanied by real-time feedback from

seasoned Forum attorneys (re: older, like me) on what went well and what did not. These are constructive

critiques out in the open but participants learn so much about their techniques and how they can be

bettered. There is even video review so you can watch yourself perform examinations or how you testify

and see how you move your hands in that way that you will promise yourself you will never do again.

The third day is a full-day mock trial, with attorney teams of two putting on their cases and one of

the faculty serving as the judge. A bonus is that all of this takes place in real courtrooms in a Dallas

courthouse. The case file that is used for all phases of the program is a true construction contract

dispute—so unlike nearly all other trial ad programs, the Forum’s Trial Academy is centered squarely on

skill development for our field of law.

While the Trial Academy is open to anyone interested, I personally think that it is most beneficial to

mid-level associates (i.e., persons who understand the core concepts of construction law and have taken/

defended a few depositions but have never performed “without a net” in trial) and mid-level experts (i.e.,

persons who have assisted with/authored reports but who are looking for some testimony experience).

This year’s Trial Academy is co-chaired by Meera Wagman, Managing Director with Secretariat in New

York, New York, and Lance Currie, Partner with Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, LLP in

Dallas, Texas. It is sure to be a success under their leadership. The Trial Academy holds a special place for

me because I co-chaired the program in 2020 and 2023, and had served on the committee for the program

prior to that. This year I am serving on the faculty and I am so looking forward to the experience.

If I were a betting man (and as FanDuel knows, I am), I would wager that the 2025 Trial Academy is close

to fully booked … but in the event a few spots remain open, I strongly encourage anyone who is reading

this and who is potentially interested to look into it and register (you will be a little behind the curve on

NOTES FROM THE EDITOR