Best Lawyers Near You in New York, New York for Construction Law
New York City is one of the most active and complex legal markets in the world. With a dense network of courts, regulations and high-stakes legal matters across every industry, navigating the legal system here requires more than just any attorney—it requires the right one.
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This page serves as a targeted directory for users looking to find a lawyer in New York. Each attorney listed has been recognized in the most recent edition of Best Lawyers—a distinction based entirely on peer nominations and evaluations.
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Each attorney profile includes a clear summary of their experience, focus areas and credentials—giving you the information you need to make a confident decision.
Legal Help by Practice Area
New York City residents’ and visitors’ legal needs are wide-ranging and so are the attorneys listed in this directory. You can quickly narrow your search by legal focus. This directory includes attorneys who concentrate on some of the most in-demand areas of law in New York, such as:
- Business and commercial law
- Criminal defense and investigations
- Employment and labor disputes
- Real estate and construction law
- Divorce, custody and family matters
- Immigration issues
- Personal injury and malpractice
- Estate planning and probate
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Every attorney on this page has earned a place through Best Lawyers’ rigorous annual peer-review process—one of the most trusted selection methods in the legal profession.
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To be listed, an attorney must:
- Be nominated by another legal professional
- Receive consistently high marks from peers in their practice area
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Only those who stand out among their peers are selected. And only those chosen in the most recent edition of the Best Lawyers awards appear in this directory, ensuring that every listing reflects current, active recognition.
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Begin your search by selecting your legal focus. Then explore profiles, compare qualifications and connect with an attorney in New York who’s already earned the trust of the legal community.
Practice Area Overview
For a typical project, a construction lawyer may be called upon to assist the owner in obtaining land for the project. Buying the land and building a project on the land often requires financing from another source, and construction lawyers often help prepare and negotiate the various loan documents that define the rights of the bank, bondholders, or other source of funding.
Construction lawyers may assist owners and developers in deciding which project delivery approach best suits their project, such as design-bid-build, design build, or multi-prime construction. Then, construction lawyers may help draft requests for bids to allow the owner or developer to identify a contractor. A lawyer may help determine whether a bid can be withdrawn due to a mistake. For certain public projects where the owner is a city, county, state, or arm of the federal government, a construction lawyer may be called upon to file a bid protest to challenge the fairness of the bidding process.
After the project is awarded, lawyers are often involved in drafting and negotiating contracts between the owner and general contractor or the general contractor and its subcontractors. Lawyers also may be involved in documenting insurance and bonding arrangements to secure performance of the work and protect the parties against property damage or personal injuries.
During the project, construction lawyers are often called upon to help the participants understand their contracts and comply with them. Many construction lawyers see this kind of work as extremely rewarding, because their guidance can help keep construction on track toward a successful conclusion. Where contractors or subcontractors are not being paid for their work, construction lawyers may file liens or bond claims to secure payment for their clients’ work.
Construction projects are complex, expensive, stressful, and sometimes dangerous, and thus give rise to many different kinds of disputes, including disputes about the cost and duration of the project, the quality of the work, and responsibility for injuries or damages suffered during the work or, sometimes, after the work is completed. Construction disputes are often complex, involving many parties and substantial amounts of money, so construction lawyers often engage in complex commercial litigation. Many construction contracts call for dispute resolution through dispute review boards, mediation, and arbitration, so a successful construction lawyer will understand the advantages, disadvantages, and nuances of alternative dispute resolution techniques.
While often seen as a specialist, a construction lawyer is, in many ways, a generalist who must be prepared to deal with almost any kind of legal problem that may affect the construction industry, whether that problem involves contract law, banking law, tax law, environmental law, criminal law, international law, bankruptcy law, real property law, insurance law, tort law, bond and lien law, administrative law, or litigation.
Melissa Billig is Co-Chair of Tannenbaum Helpern's Construction & Design Practice. She represents owners, developers, architects, engineers, construction managers and contractors engaged in the design and construction process on projects in New York City and across the region. Melissa delivers a range of experience as both a results-driven litigator and a strategic counselor, adept at drafting and negotiating complex contracts. Melissa represents clients in high-profile, multi-party contr...
Kenneth M. Block is the Co-Chair of the Construction & Design Practice and is an acknowledged leader in the area of construction law. Ken is the former Chair of the Construction Law Committee of the New York State Bar Association Real Property Law Section and writes for the New York Law Journal Construction Law column. He lectures extensively on construction legal and business issues and represents prominent real estate owners, developers and not-for-profit institutions, including Vornado...
Steven M. Charney is the Chairman of the firm and is regarded as one of the foremost construction lawyers in the United States of America. Mr. Charney’s practice includes the ongoing representation of contractors that are among the top ten as reported by Engineering News Record. Mr. Charney’s background couples extensive academic and hands on experience in the construction industry with decades of experience in litigating for and providing legal counsel to contractors and develope...
Gregory H. Chertoff is the co-managing partner of Peckar & Abramson’s New York office and specializes in construction law, regularly counseling general contractors, construction managers, engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contractors and owners on contract negotiations, risk management and disputes. Mr. Chertoff's practice emphasizes resolving complex construction disputes through negotiation, mediation, and, when necessary, arbitration and litigation, on projects in Ne...
David M. Grill dedicates his practice to representing the interests of major real estate owners, developers, and contractors in complex commercial, construction, surety, lien law and property litigation. Over the course of more than 20 years in practice, David has successfully litigated and arbitrated hundreds of real property and construction disputes, and his efforts have delivered substantial value to his clients. With particular expertise in construction defect and contract cases, David r...
Paul Monte is co-managing partner of Peckar & Abramson’s New York City office. Paul has 30 years of experience in construction, public contract and infrastructure law. He has extensive trial, arbitration and appeals experience, successfully prosecuting and defending complex multi-million dollar disputes. He also has significant transactional and project support experience on cutting-edge infrastructure projects, including design-build and public-private partnership (P3) projects. Pa...
Robert S. Peckar is a founding partner of Peckar & Abramson. Mr. Peckar has devoted his career to serving the construction industry and bar. For decades, he has represented contractors throughout the United States and the world, gaining a widespread reputation for his legal acumen, his energetic representation and his creative approach to solving contractors’ most challenging problems. In that regard, he was among the pioneers of creative dispute avoidance and dispute resolution tec...
David J. Pfeffer is a partner, chair of Tarter Krinsky & Drogin’s Construction Practice, and a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee. Mr. Pfeffer serves as a business partner to his clients – including real estate owners and developers, educational institutions, high-net-worth individuals, healthcare organizations, and cultural centers – and advises on all aspects of their construction, development, real estate, and business needs. His work has helped reshape sk...
Pia E. Riverso is a commercial litigator with more than 30 years of experience litigating complex civil matters including construction disputes of every nature, business dissolutions, shareholder disputes, restrictive covenant litigation, insurance and surety issues, intellectual property litigation and FINRA arbitrations. Pia counsels owners, developers, architects, construction managers and contractors on various aspects of construction law, including contract negotiation, license agreement...
Howard Rosen is a partner in the Construction Law Practice at Peckar & Abramson. He represents construction companies and developers in private project transactions and disputes. Mr. Rosen also has extensive experience litigating claims for public construction contractors in various courts and alternative dispute forums. Mr. Rosen has been involved in numerous complex arbitrations, representing both claimants and respondents. He has been successful in using mediation to achieve favorable ...
Richard Volack is a partner in the Construction Law practice at Peckar & Abramson and Chair of the firm's Cyber Security & Data Privacy practice. He counsels some of the country’s largest general contractors, construction managers, and owners in all aspects of construction dispute resolution, including claims involving breach of contract, construction defects, design defects, schedule-and-impact delays, mechanic’s liens, surety bonds and insurance, and counsels clients in ...
Based in the firm’s New York office, Darien is an experienced litigator and is highly respected for his work across multiplepractice areas, including civil and complex commercial litigation. Darien represents owners, general contractors, and sureties in a variety of complex litigation matters involving contract disputes, construction defect claims, payment and performance bond claims, mechanic’s lien claims, and delay claims. Darien is admitted to practice in New York as well as t...
Chris has extensive experience litigating cases in federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration and mediation, and has tried multiple cases to verdict. His representative matters include many public infrastructure projects, such as water treatment, railway, bridge, utility, transportation, and other public sector projects, as well as a variety of private projects encompassing all types of commercial developments. Prior to joining Peckar & Abramson, Chris held the position of senior...
Deena Crimaldi is a client-focused litigator who strives to develop strategies that are not only successful but tailored to each client’s specific needs. Ms. Crimaldi concentrates her practice on construction, product liability, general commercial, and mass liability toxic tort litigation. She has experience representing corporations involved in talc and asbestos litigation, toxic tort litigation, construction, and other complex cases in multiple jurisdictions. Ms. Crimaldi has ten year...
Suyash Raiborde focuses his practice on public finance and infrastructure projects and works out of Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd’s Greenville office. Suyash routinely represents governmental entities, developers, 501(c)(3) organizations (including public universities and not-for-profit hospitals), issuers, and lenders in tax-exempt and taxable debt and other financing options.
Brandon Reiner is a partner in Tannenbaum Helpern's Construction & Design Law practice. Brandon focuses his practice on the representation of developers, owners, condominium and co-op boards, landlords, tenants, contractors and professionals in connection with construction projects throughout the country, including ground up developments, renovations of existing buildings, landlord or tenant build-outs, daily operations of existing buildings and renovations of residential units. In connec...
Prior to entering the legal profession, Mark spent several years working in heavy civil construction, which provides him a fundamental understanding of the complex issues that face his clients daily. By focusing on addressing the practical needs of his clients, he advises them on strategic decision making to balance risk, mitigate disputes at their inception, and reduce the need for litigation. Mark has extensive experience representing contractors in developing and litigating claims on compl...
Hillel E. Sussman is an associate in Tannenbaum Helpern's Real Estate and Construction Law practice. Hillel focuses his practice on drafting, reviewing and negotiating construction, design, and development contracts involving developers, real estate owners, REITs, not-for-profit institutions, owner's representatives, construction managers, development managers, general contractors, subcontractors, architects, interior designers, engineers, consultants, vendors and adjacent property owners. Hi...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.