Contract Guide for Design Professionals - Basic Principles

This course is written primarily for the design professional - architects, engineers, and other persons that provide professional opinions and services for construction projects. The discussion of contract clauses in this course is intended to provide general information and education for use on traditional design-bid-build projects and does not necessarily apply to the design-build method of contracting. This is because the expectations of the parties on design-build projects are generally different than those on design-bid-build projects. Also, the terms and conditions of contractual agreements on those projects will reflect those different expectations—resulting in a different allocation of risk between the parties. Nevertheless, for a few of the key terms and conditions, a brief discussion of risk allocation and risk management on design-build projects is included in this course. In a similar manner, although this course is focused on traditional commercial projects, brief discussions of clauses and risk management issues germane to Environmental Remediation contracts are included. This course outlines a number of the contract clauses most often identified by construction lawyers and professional liability insurance carriers as requiring particular attention with regard to risk allocation.