Law firm offering free continuing eduction seminar. (Transcripts).

LePatner & Associates, one of the nation's most prominent law firms serving the real estate and construction industry, is offering law firms in New York a new seminar, "Defending the Project Owner Against Unwarranted Claims." The seminar is the latest course in a continuing legal education (CLE) program that was inaugurated last year and presented by LePatner & Associates to law firms and corporate real estate law departments in the New York region.

The seminar is free of cost to legal professionals and is targeted to law firms with significant clients within the real estate industry, especially those firms that represent commercial owners and developers. In 2002, LePatner & Associates presented CLE seminars to such distinguished law firms as Shearman & Sterling; Paul, Weiss, Rlikind, Wharton & Garrison; Robinson Brog Leinwald Greene Genovese & Gluck P.C. and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

Accredited by the New York Continuing Legal Education Department, the seminar will fulfill 1.5 of annual CLE credits.

"Defending the Project Owner Against Unwarranted Claims," walks legal professionals through the major challenges faced by clients from pre-construction to lease negotiations and contractual protections to post-construction statutes of limitations. The seminar highlights the importance of structuring specially crafted integrated contracts that incorporate the critical business goals of owners who are planning large-scale construction projects. LePatner said, "Owners must develop a creative and proactive approach toward protecting themselves against unwarranted construction claims, using all available mechanisms available to them."

Standardized form agreements typically fail to protect owners or even address such concerns. Topics discussed during the seminar will demonstrate how construction law has become an increasingly sophisticated and complex area of the law. Today's construction projects, often involving tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, entail the need for coordinating an owner's business objections with seamless agreements and contract documents that are designed to eliminate unwarranted or fraudulent claims. The course will assist lawyers in helping to protect their clients' real estate investments.

Developed from more than two decades of construction law experience and thousands of projects, LePatner's presentation explores many complex, yet standard design and construction challenges that can be avoided by assembling the right team of contractors, architects, engineers and owner representatives.

Seminars can be scheduled at LePatner & Associates or on-site at law firms throughout the New York metro area. For more information, to reserve a time or find out if your law firm or real estate law department qualifies for the free seminar, please contact Barry B. LePatner, Esq. at LePatner & Associates at [phone].