Notes from the Editor

• Author: Lauren E. Catoe
• Pages: 3-3

THE CONSTRUCTION LAWYER 3Volume 41, Issue 4, 2022

NOTES FROM THE EDITOR

continued on page 7

From Contracts to Columns

After over a decade of being on

the editorial team for The Con-

struction Lawyer, I actually have

to write a column. As someone

who spends many of her days

drafting and scrutinizing con-

struction contract language, this

most denitely is outside of my

comfort zone. My former law partner, mentor, and past

chair of the Forum, George Meyer, used to say that I

would live in my comfort zone 100 percent of the time

if I could. Well George, I am about to tip-toe out of it.

Though the thought of writing a column gives me

anxiety, I derive great comfort from having worked with

and learned from four wonderful past editors of this jour-

nal: John Ralls, Stephen Hess, Michael Branca, and John

Foust. Each of them had a slightly different approach to

the editor position, but the one consistency among all of

them was that they delivered great content to the Forum’s

membership. Actually, I just thought of a second consis-

tency: none of them kicked me off of The Construction

Lawyer team, even when I was late in editing an article

or proofreading my assigned pages within an issue about

to go to print. I thank them for their patience, leadership,

and friendship.

Lucking Out

I also have lucked out with a great group of Forum mem-

bers willing to help me take on the challenge of producing

this quarterly journal over the course of the next year.

Some are new to The Construction Lawyer team and oth-

ers are veterans who are willing to commit another year

of their lives to this endeavor. I look forward to intro-

ducing them to you in future columns. For now, I would

like to recognize Chris Burke, who will serve as associate

editor for the next three years. Some may think of that as

a three-year sentence (during which he will have to put

up with me on a regular basis), but I prefer to refer to it

as a three-year term. Chris is fantastic and already has

brought some great new ideas to the table.

Now is probably a good time for me to calm the fears

of some of our Forum traditionalists: my overall goal

for my tenure as editor is to continue to publish law-jour-

nal–quality articles that are of interest to the Forum’s

members. I am a rm believer in the adage, “If it ain’t

broke, don’t x it.” Our team will strive to publish content

in furtherance of the Forum’s mission: “to serve the con-

struction industry through education and leadership while

building the best construction lawyers.” You may notice

some minor tweaks here and there in future issues, but

nothing too drastic. I think we have some readers who are

still in shock over the font update a couple of years ago,

and trust me, I get it—change can be hard (remember, I

would permanently reside in my comfort zone if I could).

The YLD Weighs In

This issue is brought to you by the Forum’s Young Law-

yers Division (YLD). Some time ago, the YLD committed

to “taking over” this issue, and each of the three articles

included herein were authored or co-authored by YLD

members. Thank you to Luke Larocca, current YLD

chair, as well as all of the authors who identied and

generated the content for this edition. You made my job

a little easier this rst go ’round.

The rst of the three articles, The Need for Model Leg-

islation in Connection with Private Investment in Public

Infrastructure Projects, is provided by Emily Anderson

and Jade Davis. In their article, Emily and Jade start off

with a discussion of crumbling infrastructure throughout

the United States and the need for large-scale investment

in quality infrastructure as a means of achieving sustain-

able economic growth. They note that the Infrastructure

Investment and Jobs Act (the infrastructure bill) is a good

start, but they argue that effective use of public-private

partnerships (P3s) in the infrastructure sector is critical.

Emily and Jade survey the status of P3 legislation in vari-

ous jurisdictions throughout the United States and point

to case law as a means of demonstrating discrepancies

and other shortcomings that arise due to the current state

of P3 legislation. They conclude their article by making

a case for legislative reform, the goal of which should be

consistency and clarity that allows for P3s “to serve as a

viable solution to xing the nation’s deteriorating infra-

structure and need for substantial funding.”

In Quicker but Less Dirty: The Biden Administration

Both Streamlines But Also Seeks to Expand NEPA Envi-

ronmental Review, Elaine Lee and Athena Rutherford

review changes to the National Environmental Protec-

tion Act (NEPA) process resulting from the passage of

the infrastructure bill. They also discuss modications

recently proposed by the White House Council on Envi-

ronmental Quality to its regulations implementing NEPA.

Elaine and Athena consider whether the changes to NEPA

arising out of the infrastructure bill will improve the

NEPA process by addressing some of its common criti-

cisms. In sum, this article is an important read for anyone

who represents clients involved in federally funded con-

struction projects because NEPA compliance could very

well be on the critical path for those projects.

The topic of our third article is another timely one.

Over the past few years, many companies and organiza-

tions have committed to implementing new or expanded

Lauren Catoe

By Lauren Catoe

Published in

The Construction Lawyer

, Volume 41, Number 4. © 2022 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not

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