Commercial Observer and REBNY hosted the 3rd Annual Future of New York Forum on Thursday, March 30th. Zetlin & De Chiara founding partner Michael Zetlin lead a panel on the future of housing.

Zetlin & De Chiara Celebrated Our 30th Aniversary!

Patricia Harris, Zetlin & De Chiara Special Counsel, will speak at the Small Firm Symposium, sponsored by AIA NYS, AIA New Jersey, and AIA Pennsylvania. She will discuss Ownership Transitions.

Rachel John will speak on the importance of negotiating a comprehensive teaming agreement when pursuing a design-build project award on a panel entitled, So You Think a Teaming Agreement is Too Much Trouble? She will also discuss updates to the DBIA family of design-build contracts and comparison of key terms with other industry forms in another panel, Fair and Balanced – What Makes DBIA’s Family of Contract Documents Different? The panels will take place at the Design-Build Institute of America's 2022 Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

Michael Zetlin, Senior Partner at Zetlin & De Chiara LLP, moderated a panel discussion hosted by the New York Building Congress -"ADR" Alternative Dispute Resolution: A Legal Alternative to Workers Compensation Insurance for Infrastructure and Construction on July 14th, at the Harmonie Club, 4 East 60th Street, New York.

Rachel John, a lawyer at Zetlin & De Chiara, will speak as a member of the panel on Green Hues in Contracts during Brooklyn Law School's Introduction to Sustainability and Future Cities Boot Camp on June 23rd.

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of . . . Good Contracts): Understanding and Navigating the Ancillary Contracts in Construction

Michael Vardaro, Managing Partner, will join a panel at the ABA Forum on Construction Law to discuss the nuances of construction contracts. In-house counsel frequently draft and negotiate core construction contracts, but projects often require a variety of other specialized ancillary agreements, including joint venture arrangements, special project access issues, non-disclosure and confidentiality, unusual project finance, letters of intent, and other issues. You can sleep soundly when you have adequately papered the deal for these critical, and often unique, situations.

This session will equip counsel to recognize the need for an ancillary agreement as well as the purposes, principal components, and strategies for negotiating such specialized contracts.

Zetlin & De Chiara senior partner Michael Zetlin moderated the keynote session of The Commercial Observer’s latest commercial real estate forum — “The State of CRE: A Forward-Looking Industry Outlook & Vision for Market Growth.”

Michael Vardaro, Managing Partner, will participate in a panel on Mergers, Acquisitions and ESOP: The Future of A/E/C Management at the ACEC New York Winter Conference. The panel, part of the CFO/Business Managers Agenda will feature industry leaders who will provide their views on how mergers and acquisitions, as well as pending ESOP legislation, will affect engineering firms in the near and distant future.

Loryn Riggiola, Partner will join a panel discussion on the Design Build process. The panel will include NYC DOT’s Tanvi Pandya, PE, DBIA, Executive Director of Design-Build (Bridges) as well as members of WBC’s Design Build Committee who will share their insights and perspectives on best practices for MWBEs as well as managing risk on these type of projects.

Zetlin & De Chiara Special Counsel Patti Harris has been invited to speak on "Professional Business Entities & Licensure: Rules to Live by Whether You’re Starting Out or Growing Your Practice" on the EntreArchitect podcast Context & Clarity LIVE.

Loryn Riggiola, Partner will speak as a member of a panel at The Dispute Resolution Board Foundation 25th Annual Connections Conference on November 8-10, 2021. The conference will address The "New" P3: Past, Present and Post-Pandemic DBs.

The panel, Champion or Challenger - How the DRB Process is Viewed Through the Lens of the Designer and Engineer will address how engineers / designers think about the DRB process.

We often hear from project owners, CMs, and contractors, but what do the engineers / designers think about the DRB process? A panel of major project designers will discuss this perspective.

Moderator:

Ali Chaudhry, Senior Vice President, AECOM

Speakers:
Ed Hunter, Technical Advisor, HNTB
Matthew Neuringer, Senior Associate, Orrick Law Firm
Loryn Riggiola, Partner,Zetlin & De Chiara LLP
David Ryan, Senior Vice President-Boston, AECOM

Michael De Chiara, Senior Partner, will moderate a panel discussion about the transformation of NYC Metro Life Sciences economy into the largest life science economy in the United States in just twenty years. This session will, highlight the private sector macro trends driving industry growth, map where concentrated development is occurring, and will provide a forecast for future opportunities and areas of expansion.

Tony DiBrita, Of Counsel, discussed the Risks & Opportunities of NYC LL97. He addressed:

1. The projects that are subject to LL97

2. Updates on pending LL97 regulations

3. Identifying and mitigating problematic contract language

4. The importance of communicating risks and desicions made during the phases of the project

Jaimee Nardiello, Partner at Zetlin & De Chiara, participated in the Commercial Observer's 5th Annual Healthcare Construction Forum on September 23, 2021.

Michael De Chiara spoke at a BE-Ex Architect Advisory Council (AAC) workshop co-sponsored by the Building Energy Exchange, AIA New York, and ASHRAE New York about the legal risk and responsibility of high performance design and construction, and how to improve compliance with NYC climate legislation.

Jaimee Nardiello, Partner, and Patricia Harris, Special Counsel, will speak on a panel, Business Up Front: Contracts and Compliance at the ASLA SKILL | ED program. The panelists will share their expertise regarding the practical challenges faced by all design professionals when they establish their own practices.

Tara Mulrooney, Partner at Zetlin & De Chiara, moderated a panel of industry experts at the Commercial Observer’s recent Life Science Forum. The panelists, representatives from different constituencies in the life sciences market, were:

• Susie Harboth, EVP, Business Operations Breakthrough Properties;
• Matthew Weir, EVP, Taconic Properties;
• Shara Ticku, CEO & Co-Founder, C16 Biosciences; and
• Peter Schubert, Design Partner, Ennead Architects.

The discussion focused on the unique needs of start-up and early stage life science companies and what developers, landlords and the City can do to make New York a destination for these enterprises.

Loryn Riggiola, Partner, Zetlin & De Chiara LLP,  joins a panel on June 10, 2021, 1:30-2:30 entitled Understand the Arbitral Decision-Making Model and What Advocates Can Do to Protect the Award. This panel will dicuss the differing arbitral decision-making philosophies and recent challenges to arbitral awards. The application of law, equity, fairness, and justness can serve as a means by which an arbitrator can reach a decision. Each model has its own unique characteristics, and understanding these approaches and their limits is key to avoiding improper or frustrating outcomes in arbitration. Along with the arbitrator, advocates have a role to play in the rendering of an enforceable award, and all participants should have an appreciation for the nature of recent challenges to arbitral awards. The panel will also offer practical tips for drafting arbitration agreements, conducting discovery, and the presentation of evidence to assist arbitrators in making enforceable awards.

A discussion of the lessons learned, both legal and technical, arising from the Millennium Tower project in San Francisco. The Millennium Tower is a 58 story luxury rental building, home to many high-profile profile that started to skink and tile after completion. One corner of the Tower descended at least 18 inches. The speakers were instrumental in resolving the dispute that ensued. 

This program will present key aspects of ACEC New York's LL97 Reference Guide White Paper. Michael De Chiara will discuss design team liability.

Jaime Nardiello, Partner and CREW New York leader will serve as a judge at a mock RFP Team Challenge.

DIG This: A CREW Careers Program in collaboration with NEW (Nontraditional Employment for Women) and CREW Foundation.

Program will focus on the Development Lifecycle to educate and encourage NEW graduates about CRE careers available to them beyond the construction trades, culminating with a Mock RFP Team Challenge, in which NEW graduate teams develop project proposals responding to a Mock RFP, and present them to a panel of distinguished judges, which will determine the winners.