1.50 ConEd Learning Hours
8:30 am - 10:00 am

Every day, Pro-Demnity hears from architects who are looking to be more proactive when confronted with liability-related clauses in contracts from clients. Regardless of sector, client size, or project type, the client often points to their own lawyer as the behemoth “Goliath” standing in the way of amending the problematic provisions. Architects can often feel inadequate and unprepared to protect their own interests. In many situations, the client does not want to acknowledge the architect’s status as a professional. Instead, architects are sometimes made to feel small, and their skills and expertise commoditized and devalued. It is little wonder that architects in this situation feel like they need more preparation and ammunition to help counter the client’s reluctance or refusal to consider the architect’s position.

In this presentation, we discuss several examples of unreasonable client-authored contract conditions that increase the risk of architects losing the protection provided by their Professional Liability Insurance if a claim arises on
the project, and offer useful guidance for architects to approach negotiation conversations with greater assurance and confidence, in a constructive manner. Unlike many battles there does not need to be a winner and a loser—the objective is a win-win for both architect and client, consistent with the client’s objectives and the Architect’s status as their professional advisor.

Learning Objectives
1. Address power imbalances in client-architect contracts to improve negotiations.
2. Achieve a win-win with dispute resolution provisions in OAA standard contracts.
3. Understand why liability limits in contracts are crucial and when to involve a lawyer.
4. Evaluate liability impacts of contract provisions for Construction Phase services.

John C.A. Hackett, Pro-Demnity Insurance Co.
Leslie Parker, Pro-Demnity Insurance Co.
Salvador Knafo, Pro-Demnity Insurance Co.
Philip Ghosh, Pro-Demnity Insurance Co.

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