For this week’s Guest Post Friday here at Construction Law Musings, we welcome newcomer Lauren McLaughlin. For over a decade, Lauren has devoted her law practice to representing professionals in the construction industry. When she is not drafting contracts, negotiating change orders, litigating trials, or doing site visits as project counsel, she speaks at a myriad of construction industry events and writes for several trade associations. She has been an invited speaker to the Construction Superconference, American Bar Association (ABA) Forum on the Construction Industry, DC Mechanical Contractors Association, American Subcontractors Association of Metro Washington, Structural Engineers Association of Texas, American Council of Engineers (ACEC), and the Virginia State Bar, Construction and Public Contracts Law Section.
After several years practicing with larger law firms, Ms. McLaughlin co-founded BrigliaMcLaughlin, PLLC, a construction law firm representing owners, general contractors and subcontractors. She is the co-author of “The Law” column in Civil Engineering magazine published monthly by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Recently, I had the opportunity to moderate and present a panel for the American Subcontractors Association of Metro Washington (ASA of MW). Our topic was Building Information Modeling (BIM), the ever-present trend in the A/E/C industry. While BIM is featured prominently now in trade magazines and legal conferences (journals have sprouted dedicated exclusively to the topic) – just what is BIM? Why is the discussion relevant? How is it different from the computer-assisted (CAD) drawings used previously? Finally, what concepts and terms of art do you need to be familiar with to raise your own BIM fluency?
