Fox Rothschild attorneys based in Exton successfully argued their way to a rare win against an architectural firm for breach of contract and professional negligence, and their hard work was recently recognized by The Legal Intelligencer as one of its Top Pennsylvania Verdicts and Settlements.

The extraordinary accomplishment by Fox Rothschild resulted in a $5.5 million judgment — nearly three times the total price of the firm’s original contract for design services — that will compensate the Community College of Philadelphia for construction cost overruns on its Pavilion project that went 50 percent over budget and finished 26 months behind schedule, according to an American Bar Association report by Shiva S. Hamidinia.

Allegations that Stantec Architecture and Engineering, formerly Burt Hill, utilized unlicensed architects and engineers, delayed delivery of complete documents and overly relied on requests for information to settle structural conflicts were key components of the case, led by Fox Rothschild Partner and Construction Law Practice Group Co-Chair Ronald L. Williams with Litigation Department and Construction Law Practice Group Partner Stephanie Nolan Deviney and Litigation Department Associate Danielle Ryan.

The decision was rendered after a Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas jury trial that lasted 2.5 weeks. During the trial, the legal team called five experts to the witness stand and put together an electronic presentation of the case and its exhibits, clearly articulating “design professional negligence as Stantec’s alleged failures to verify existing conditions, coordinate the work, prepare construction documents free from material errors, comply with the schedule and/or deliver the work for the agreed-upon price,” the article noted.

Read much more about the case and its implications in the American Bar Association newsletter here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of Fox Rothschild accolades here.