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Vernon Howerton helps businesses avoid and resolve commercial disputes through negotiation, alternative dispute resolution and litigation, with an emphasis on construction and government contract law. He has more than 25 years of experience helping construction owners, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers enforce and defend their rights in disputes arising from public and private heavy civil, industrial, telecom and commercial project contracts, including claims related to changed work, extra work, differing site conditions, defective specifications, suspensions, delays and construction defects. Vernon has tried multiple suits to verdict or award and is member of the American Arbitration Association’s national roster of construction neutrals. He also presents and defends various bid protests related to federal, state and local government contracts and defends OSHA citations for workplace safety violations.

If you have been around Texas construction in the past decade, you’ve no doubt heard about a foreman shopping his crew around. You’ve probably worried about a key superintendent or project manager taking his skills to your competitor. Maybe you have lost sleep over an estimator with a LinkedIn profile that says he is immediately open to a new job.

Continue Reading Navigating the Proposed Elimination of Employee Non-Compete Agreements

Construction lawyers routinely deal with delay claims. I have presented or defended more of them than I can remember.  That is why I was curious when, earlier this year, I received a series of email invitations to presentations on the use of “concurrent delay” as a defense to contractor or owner claims for delay damages on construction projects.  I’ve written about the subject in the past and wondered what, if anything, had changed.

Continue Reading A Myth About Delay – Revisited