21+ Years of Under Construction – Wow!

With this edition, we will have finished our 21st volume of Under Construction!  When I became the Associate Editor of Under Construction in 2015, I printed all of the prior editions I could find.  The oldest in my library (now also saved on UC’s ABA Connect Page) is Volume 4, No. 1 (December 2001) - the first issue after 9/11.  The Message from the Incoming Chair was written by Deborah Ballati, this year’s Conerstone Award Recipient! Please extend your thanks to Deborah for her tireless work for the construction industry and the Forum. 

I can’t help to draw an analogy to what Deborah and her planning teams were going through after 9/11 to what Kristine Kubes and her planning teams are going through now with the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Forum’s amazing volunteer leaders guided us successfully through those difficult times and I guarantee you that our current Chair, Governing Committee, and Forum leadership will do the same with the present challenge.

Under Construction serves an important function for the ABA Forum on Construction Law.  It enables the Forum to remotely “touch” its thousands of members and provide value through informative articles and Forum news -- especially for those members who may not regularly attend the national programs.  It provides a springboard for the Forum Divisions who publish fabulous newsletters and blogs to promote some of those articles across the Forum’s 4,500+ members. 

Under Construction’s editorial team works hard to advance the Forum’s taglines People, Publications, and Programs and Building the Best Construction Lawyers.  This is a long tradition put in place by the prior Editors of Under Construction: Cathleen Bumb, Patrick O’Connor, Jr., Jeffrey Cruz, and Jayne Czik.  In each edition, with the assistance of our top-rate authors, we raise the bar on the quality, quantity, and diversity of our articles.  The future is bright with the present editorial team (Neal Sweeney, Associate Editor and Jean Terry, Mike Lane, and Carmela Mastrianni as Contributing Editors). 

We are thrilled to have running columns from Division 6 (Labor & Employment) and Division 11 (In-House Counsel).  We will continue to experiment.  For example, new in the Volume 21 editions are the Member Feature initiative (thank you Catherine Bragg), Construction Law 101, and In Memorium columns. 

Help us grow and improve Under as we venture into the new decade! So, if you have writing an article on your business plan for 2020, don’t wait — contact one of us today.  If writing is not your goal, share the links of our articles with your clients, colleagues, and on social media.  I look forward to working with and for you in the coming year!

Thank you,
Tom Dunn
Editor, Under Construction
Pierce Atwood LLP
Boston, MA and Providence, RI
[email protected]
401-490-3418
@rtomdunn