Andrew D. Ness
1299 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC 20004

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• NIH Clinical Research Center – Bethesda, MD.  Developed and implemented a detailed plan to remove and replace the existing Construction Manager nine months into construction of a 900,000 sq. ft. hospital/research center, after the Program Manager and Owner decided that they could not reach agreement with the CM on a realistic Guaranteed Maximum Price and completion schedule. After extensive preparations, a no-cost termination and switch to a new CM was successfully executed, keeping trade contractors working while avoiding litigation.
• Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Project – Idaho Falls, ID.  Assisted a DOE contractor that was in danger of defaulting on its $350 million contract in developing a detailed legal/lobbying strategy to avoid both default termination and the need to perform the balance of the contract. Successfully negotiated a no-cost termination of the unperformed contract obligations, saving the contractor from potential default liabilities well exceeding $100 million.
• Nuclear Waste Processing Plant – Oak Ridge, TN.  Developed and implemented a strategy to either obtain a convenience termination or convert a long-term, fixed-price performance contract to a cost-reimbursable basis. Successfully negotiated a conversion to cost-reimbursable combined with resolution of all prior unpriced changes, enabling the contractor to be paid immediately for the effects of DOE’s ongoing operational changes.
• UNCITRAL Arbitration – Habibullah Coastal Power v. Fiat Avio SpA.  Successfully defended the EPC Contractor that constructed an air-cooled combined-cycle power plant in a remote area of Pakistan from claims for $66 million in delay liquidated damages and alleged plant defects, while also recovering $8 million in deferred payments owed to the Contractor.
• UNCITRAL Arbitrations – POSVEN HBI Plant, Venezuela.  On behalf of the EPC Contractor, successfully defended over $100 million in claims by the owner, while also pursuing major disputes with the process supplier and two erection contractors. Dispute resolution efforts encompassed three international arbitrations, US District Court litigation, and Venezuelan litigation.
• McDevitt & Street Co. v. Marriott Corp.  Refuted claims for changes and delays by the contractor and recovered on counterclaim for actual delay damages due to lost sale opportunity on behalf of the owner.
• Thermo Electron Corp, U.S. Filter Corp. & Raytheon Engineers & Constructors, Inc. Arbitration.  Three party arbitration regarding the wastewater treatment system for a waste paper recycling plant. Succeeded in proving that the wastewater treatment subcontractor was primarily responsible for the collapse of a trickling filter and consequent damages.
• Marriott Corp. v. Thomas P. Harkins, Inc.  Successfully defended the default termination of the construction contractor for a large retirement community, and recovered excess costs of completion, following an 11-week trial in state court.
• TVA Cumberland FGD Retrofit Project, TN.  A combination of significant delays early in this $500 million scrubber retrofit project, and a major defective material problem encountered at startup, led to a series of substantial disputes between the EPCM contractor and various trade contractors. On behalf of the EPCM contractor, developed and implemented a claims resolution strategy that led to a series of negotiated or mediated settlements, using a variety of ADR methods. The only dispute to require any kind of binding resolution process was resolved by way of an abbreviated, baseball-type arbitration in lieu of a US District Court trial.
• Petrotrin Oil Refinery Reconstruction – Trinidad.  Designed and obtained the state-owned oil company’s agreement to utilize a custom-tailored form of mediation, geared to local political realities, for a dispute over the reconstruction of a major oil refinery unit. This successfully led to a resolution in which the contractor (a British-American joint venture) recovered the entirety of its additional costs.