Features Design & Engineering

“Danger—High Voltage!” “Electric Shock Hazard!” “Live Wires Overhead!” “Electrostatic Sensitive Area!” We’ve all seen the signs tacked to chain-link fences around electrical substations and other electrical equipment. There’s a reason those warnings are there—they’re not just for show. And while the general public often needs reminders about the perils of high-voltage electricity, so, too, do […]

When clients meet Tom Barham at a construction site, they may see a seasoned contractor licensed in 15 states in a hardhat and mud-caked work boots, discussing budgets and schedules. Other times they might encounter him at his Reston, Virginia, office and see a veteran general counsel who is comfortable navigating a spectrum of legal […]

For James K. Lowe, serving as assistant general counsel and vice president of one of two federal divisions of a global engineering giant is a natural continuation of his career, his engineering career, that is. Becoming a lawyer, beginning with classes at George Mason University’s School of Law, offered Lowe an opportunity to stay connected […]

Many general counsels admit to pursuing in-house roles as a way to avoid litigation, which after working in law firms, they discover an aversion to. That’s not the case with Randy Reaves, vice president and general counsel of Schnabel Engineering. Reaves is a litigator at heart. He grew up watching shows like Perry Mason and […]

Modern construction relies more and more upon geospatial surveying, and that’s a concept best grasped by those with a technical background. People such as, say, Cookie Fay Munson, who since 2012 has been the savvy general counsel of the Austin, Texas-based and nationally recognized firm, Surveying And Mapping LLC (SAM) that assists a variety of […]

“Struggling is hard because you never know what’s at the end of the tunnel,” the late, great comic Don Rickles used to say. One of his fans, Joseph Dennis, might respond that with sufficient preparation and teamwork the struggle is lessened, and what awaits at tunnel’s end can be the most tangible of accomplishments. Such […]

Jackie Bennett may be young for a general counsel, but she got her start in the engineering industry at the far younger age of 10, so she’s never been one to let her freshness hold her back. Bennett’s father was an engineer and, as a kid, she spent her summers at the engineering firm, doing […]

Ask a lawyer, especially a young one, what’s the biggest headache to working at a firm, and the answer may well be the pressure from above to rack up 2,000 billable hours in the course of a year. The overhead at the professional associations tends to be huge, and so the high-handed ideals that might […]

It’s a well-known perk of the construction industry: workers get to see the fruits of their labor. That’s not limited to the field staff driving nails or the superintendents watching buildings rise, though. The benefit is true for general counsels in the construction and engineering realm, as well. General counsels, like Richard Tong, see the […]

When VHB was looking for a deputy general counsel in 2008, someone it could groom for the top spot, it emphasized a technical background. Someone well-versed in civil engineering might have been ideal. That wasn’t quite Khristopher M. Gregoire’s specialty, but one might have thought he was overqualified. For prior to graduating from the University […]