Jeffrey R. Blease is a partner and litigation lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP and has practiced law for 34 years. Throughout his career, Jeffrey has represented clients involved in all aspects of the construction industry, including owners, national contractors, developers, engineers, subcontractors and suppliers. He is chair of Foley’s nationally recognized tier one Construction Practice overseeing more than 43 dedicated construction attorneys and serves on the firm’s national Management Committee and Partner Compensation Committee. He is also the former chair of the Litigation Department in the San Diego office.
Jeffrey has been lead counsel in litigation pending in many Federal jurisdictions across the United States, and in state courts in Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. He has handled arbitrations in many different forums and mediated hundreds of cases under the rules of several different organizations. He estimates he has tried more than 50 cases to verdict.
Construction Overview
Jeffrey represents owners, developers, engineers, lenders, contractors, subcontractors and consultants throughout all phases of a project. He provides “shovel to gavel” representation, handling all legal aspects of a construction project, including permitting, zoning, licensing, environmental, bid protests, contract, financing, insurance and performance issues, including litigating disputes with owners, contractors, consultants, subcontractors, suppliers and others.
CONSTRUCTION LITIGATION
He has extensive jury trial, court trial and arbitration experience in complex matters. Jeffrey believes in a team approach to litigation and has a team of dedicated associates and paralegals knowledgeable in the nuances of the industry and skilled in the use of technology in document-intensive cases. He has successfully handled complex construction litigation cases involving commercial and residential subdivisions, mixed-use commercial and residential mid-rise and high-rise buildings, high-rise and mid-rise medical laboratories, state of the art data centers, major airports, biomass power generation facilities, solar facilities, geothermal facilities, wind farms in the U.S. and Canada, major urban apartment complexes with athletic and commercial components, hotels, schools, dams, highways, bridges, canals and many other projects.
CONSTRUCTION TRANSACTIONAL
Jeffrey drafts and negotiates general contracts, subcontracts, consultant agreements, construction management agreements, development agreements and other project related documents. He has negotiated contracts on individual projects ranging in size from 10 million to several hundred million dollars.
