Kevin T. O'Connor

General

Combining legal, design, and construction fluencies in commercial, residential, hospitality, education, manufacturing, subsurface, and heavy civil projects, specific competencies include:

• Claim and Litigation Development for breach of contract, delays, change orders, and extra work
• Arbitration and Mediation Development
• Legal Management and Administration
• Regulatory Compliance
• Contract Formation and Management
• Architectural Design and Planning
• Engineering Design and Planning
• Budgeting and Funds Management
• Project and Operations Management
• Proposals
• Strategic Planning

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Notable Matters

• Consulting Construction Attorney for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey for the World Trade Center Redevelopment Program investigating, analyzing, and managing construction claims against the owner; providing claims and forensic analysis along with recommendations to Senior Port Authority Management to resolve claims; and evaluating and preparing matters for litigation.
• Counsel on a variety of construction litigation matters around the country including interpretation and analysis of technical disputes, delays, change orders, extra work, and time extensions; alternate dispute resolution preparation and prosecution; and surety dispute and resolution.
• Presided over the entire legal needs of a heavy civil contractor and material supplier including litigation, regulatory, general business, surety, and collection matters.
• Performed surety construction consulting of building, roadway, and subsurface projects for private owners and government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels ranging in value from $1.5MM to $140MM.
• Planned and executed innovative method for submitting a $10MM delay claim against and supported by New York State Department of Transportation.
• Recovered over $2MM in unpaid change orders for a utility contractor performed over a year earlier for Consolidated Edison of New York.
• Counseled and guided corporate controllers with financial record-keeping and profit/loss reports.
• Created and implemented method for mechanics lien claims for hospitality clients affected by the opening and closing of their restaurants and neighboring businesses.
• Developed new processes to manage financial responsibility of insurance companies.
• Recovered over $1.7MM in mismanaged payroll and union benefits.
• Analyzed legal and financial exposure including project costs, change orders, schedule delays, and potential overruns.
• Expedited, facilitated, and managed project close-out of several heavy civil projects including obtaining payments worth over $1.5MM from city and state contracting authorities.
• Managed projects to completion while ensuring construction methods and scheduling.
• Supervised funds control, timing of project expenditures, and creation of delay claims.

About

Kevin is a dynamic, outgoing attorney and architectural engineer with a unique background of nearly two decades as a trial and transactional lawyer, architect/engineer, construction consultant, negotiator, project manager, and hospitality professional who drives cooperation and collaboration among various principals with a strong client focus. Kevin has worked with contractors, designers, insurance and surety companies, consulting companies, restaurant, and other law firms to ensure the success of a variety of projects while also protecting and developing claims for those entities when necessary.

Kevin has appeared before state and federal courts; myriad federal, state, and local agencies; and arbitration and mediation proceedings.

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Practice Areas

• Construction Law and Litigation
• Hospitality design, development, construction, and dispute resolution

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Bar Admissions

• New York, 2007 + Southern and Eastern District, 2015
• Missouri, 2002 + Western District of Missouri, 2002
• Kansas, 2001 + Federal District of Kansas, 2002

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Education

• 1999: Juris Doctorate, University of Kansas
• 1993: Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering, Kansas State University

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