Lawrence P. Powers

Lawrence P. Powers is Co-Chair of the firm's Construction Litigation Department. Larry's practice is focused on handling complex, multi-party construction related professional liability claims and other land use and development related matters, such as land use approvals and permitting, State Disciplinary Board matters and liquor license applications. He has tried numerous complex construction cases to a jury verdict. For over three decades, Larry has litigated, arbitrated and mediated complex construction disputes, and regularly handles difficult loss prevention and risk management assignments for world renowned design firms and all major professional liability insurers. Larry has tried over 90 professional malpractice and construction cases to a jury verdict.  Representative matters that he has handled include everything from contracts for sole practitioner architects to multi-billion dollar bridge and highway projects and international building projects.

Selection of Representative Matters:

• Tried a $12,000,000 environmental malpractice claim against an LSRP to a $45,000.00 jury verdict
• Obtained a directed verdict for a construction inspection company in an electrocution death case filed by one of the pre-eminent plaintiff’s personal injury attorney in the State of New Jersey.
• Tried a $13,000,000 HVAC design malpractice case to a $35,000.00 jury verdict
• Successfully represented a construction engineering firm on a malpractice claim involving a $1.46 billion dollar bridge replacement project, getting his client paid for additional services and avoiding making any indemnity payment.
• Successfully tried a residential consumer fraud case to a jury verdict resulting in one of the few awards of counsel fees to a Plaintiff under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.
• Successfully negotiated the settlement of litigation involving a $10,000,000 sewer construction fee recapture agreement for a nationally known residential home builder.

Larry has served as General Counsel to AIA-New Jersey, the New Jersey Society of Professional Engineers and NJASLA for over 30 years.  He regularly represents design professionals in disciplinary matters before the New Jersey State Board of Architects and Landscape Architects, New Jersey State Board of Engineers and Land Surveyors, and the New Jersey Licensed Site Remediation Professional Board. He is admitted to practice in the State and Federal courts of New Jersey.  

Widely recognized as a leader in his field, Larry achieved a peer review rating of "AV" by Martindale-Hubbell very early in his career.  This is the highest accolade given by other members of the legal profession. In 2022, he was named among the nation’s “Real Estate/Construction Law Trailblazers” by The National Law Journal for his role in representing the AIA and AIA-NJ in State Board of Architects v. George North, P.E., which had a long-term impact on the practice of the professions of engineering and architecture in New Jersey. In addition, Larry was named Best Lawyers "Lawyer of the Year" in 2012, 2018 and 2020 for the Construction Litigation category and 2017 for the Construction Law category for the Woodbridge, NJ Metropolitan area and was AIA-New Jersey’s Resident of the Year in 2011.  In 2015, Larry was a finalist in the Non-profit or Government Organization category in the NJBIZ General Counsel of the Year Awards program for his work as Counsel to AIA-New Jersey. As counsel for NJASLA, he was instrumental in the success of the effort to obtain closely allied professional status and licensure for New Jersey landscape architects.  Larry is also an experienced construction arbitrator and mediator. 

A 1980 graduate of Villanova University, Larry put himself through law school by working in both the office and in the field in the general and mechanical contracting construction industries and the heavy and specialized transportation industry before receiving his law degree as a night student from the Seton Hall University School of Law.  Larry "got his hands dirty" as a mason's laborer, can read blueprints and is well acquainted with how buildings get designed and built from the ground up.

Larry is the former Planning Board attorney for both the Borough of Garwood and Hopewell Borough.  He has been an invited lecturer on professional liability and land development issues at the Princeton University Graduate School of Architecture, the Pratt Institute School of Architecture and is a regular featured speaker at the Annual Conventions of AIA-New Jersey, NJASLA, the New Jersey Society of Professional Engineers and the New Jersey Builders Association. His lectures on professional liability and ethics have been certified as continuing education courses by the professional licensing boards of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Affiliations

• Counsel, AIA-New Jersey, the New Jersey Society of Professional Engineers and ASLA-New Jersey
• Former counsel, Garwood Planning Board and the Hopewell Borough Planning Board
• Fellow, Construction Lawyers Society of America
• Co-Chair, Claims and Litigation Management Alliance (“CLM”) Cannabis Committee

Awards

• The National Law Journal, Real Estate/Construction Law Trailblazers (2022)
• The Best Lawyers in America (2008-Present); "Lawyer of the Year" in Construction Law (2017) and Construction Litigation (2012, 2018 and 2020)
• New Jersey Super Lawyers (2005-2017; 2020-Present)
• NJBIZ Icon Award Honoree (2018)
• AIA-NJ Resident of the Year (2011)
• NJBIZ General Counsel of the Year Awards, Finalist, Non-profit or Government Organization (2015)
• Rated AV Preeminent, Martindale-Hubbell

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