Longtime Glaser Weil partner Peter Sheridan was named the 2023 president of the Construction Lawyers Society of America.
Sheridan, who heads Glaser Weil’s construction law practice and works out of the firm’s Century City location, said he hopes to produce a quality annual conference accompanied by strong publications for his tenure. He has been with Glaser Weil for 33 years and joined the CLSA in 2017.
“I joined it because I thought that there was a side to construction law that not a lot of people understood,” he said, noting that it’s not simply getting a project off the ground. “There’s so much more — for instance, when a large project comes to the end, there are often disputes over closeouts.”
Those issues can prove complex and include settling change orders and how much they should cost, as well as assigning financial responsibility for delays. It’s why a dedicated network like this is so important, Sheridan said.
“There’s just a myriad of these issues and all of the things that go with it,” he said. “With those kinds of things, there was a lot of need for an organization that deals with the real substantive law of construction and everything that entails.”
The organization selects a president each year and named Sheridan in January. Throughout his career, Sheridan’s cases have included disputes between large hotels, casinos and resorts, including the Fairmont Century Plaza redevelopment in Century City and the Bacara Resort and Spa in Santa Barbara.
“Peter Sheridan’s record of success in the construction-law arena is highly accoladed and known well among his peers,” G. Steven Henry, consulting director and counsel of the CLSA, said in a statement.
Sheridan said there are a handful of areas he hopes to address thoroughly for members, including public works projects and housing development.
“The amount of money put into the infrastructure bill is going to drive a lot of needs for lawyers to make sure projects are done right, efficiently, and close out so that these things get done timely and on budget,” he said. “That’s a big order of business for a lot of folks in the country right now.”
