News & Events

Maslon Attorney Jim O'Connor Selected by the AGC to Serve on its A201 Task Force that negotiated with the AIA in connection with their efforts to produce the General Conditions Document, AIA A201 (2007)

Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand, LLP, is pleased to announce that Attorney Jim O'Connor was selected by the Associated General Contractors of America to serve on its A201 Task Force that negotiated with the American Institute of Architects on behalf of the national construction industry in connection with the AIA's efforts to produce the 2007 Edition of the General Conditions Document, AIA A201 (2007). Jim was the only private practitioner asked to participate on the AGC Task Force.

The General Conditions Document is the contractual blue print for what is currently the most popular family of form construction and design agreements used in the United States. It is incorporated in some manner into roughly two-thirds of all construction projects in the country. The AIA revises the General Conditions Document every 10 years and released the newest version in November 2007, after a negotiation effort lasting over three years that included representatives of the construction industry, the design profession, owner's associations, lenders, insurers and sureties.

Now that the Document is finalized, it has become the focus of national seminars and publishing efforts. The ABA Forum on the Construction Industry is publishing a Desk Book on the new Document that will be available in December. Mr. O'Connor is one of four authors. Jim has also been selected to speak at two national ABA construction and design conferences showcasing the new documents, one in New York in January 2008 and another in San Antonio, TX in February 2008.

Jim O'Connor is a partner at Maslon, where he heads the firm's Construction Law Group. A lawyer for 28 years, he devotes his practice exclusively to construction and construction insurance-related matters. He represents general contractors, specialty contractors, owners and design professionals in litigation matters throughout the United States. Jim is a Fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the former Chair of the ABA Forum on the Construction Industry, and an active member of the AGC's Contract Documents Committee and its Risk Management Committee. He has published extensively in the construction law area, including co-authoring The A201 Deskbook: Understanding the Revised General Conditions (ABA 2008); authoring Wrestling with Reform: Indemnification Agreements, The Statutory Bars, Promises to Procure, and Insurance Products for the Construction Industry, 1 J.A.C.C.L. 57 (West 2007); co-authoring Chapter 2 on Owner-Contractor Agreements in the AGC Contract Documents Handbook; and co-editing a book on construction systems and technologies: Whitney, MacPherson & O'Connor, Sticks and Bricks: A Practical Guide to Construction Systems & Technology.