CHEROKEE COUNTY SOUTH CAROLINA CONSTRUCTION EXPERT WITNESS
DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES

GRSM Ranked Among Texas’ 50 Largest Law Firms by Texas Lawyer

August 03, 2026 — Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani
Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani has been recognized byTexas Lawyer in its 2026 Texas 100 ranking, earning the No. 49 spot among the state’s largest law firms by attorney headcount. The annual report spotlights the continued strength of Texas’ legal market, with firms across the state collectively increasing lawyer headcount by 2% in 2025. “Texas continues to be one of the country’s most thriving legal and business markets, and we are proud to be recognized among the state’s largest law firms,” said Laura De Santos, Regional Oversight Partner for Texas. “Our continued growth shows the confidence our clients place in us, the exceptional talent of our attorneys, and our commitment to delivering seamless, high-quality legal services throughout Texas and across our 50-state platform.” Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani

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Legal 500 US Ranks Hunton’s Insurance Coverage Team Among Top Policyholder Practices in 2026 Guide

July 06, 2026 — Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog
Hunton’s insurance coverage practice was once again recognized among the nation’s top policyholder insurance practices, receiving a Band 2 national ranking in the 2026 United States Edition of The Legal 500 for Insurance: Advice to Policyholders. The Legal 500 recognizes firms solely based on merit through numerous factors including client feedback and peer input. Bolstering the team’s national recognition, several coverage lawyers received individual accolades: special counsel Lorelie “Lorie” S. Masters was named to The Legal 500’s Hall of Fame; team head Syed S. Ahmad and partner Michael S. Levine were named Leading Lawyers; and partners Andrea DeField and Latosha M. Ellis were named Next Generation Partners. In addition, partners Walter J. Andrews, Lawrence J. Bracken II, and Koorosh “KT” Talieh were recognized as Key Lawyers on the team. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

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Congratulations to BWB&O’s 2027 Southern California Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Honorees!

September 08, 2026 — Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara, LLP
Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara, LLP is proud to announce that Partners Nicole Whyte, Keith Bremer, John Toohey, and Tyler Offenhauser have been named to the 2027 Southern California Super Lawyers list. Notably, Nicole Whyte was also selected to the Top 50 Orange County Super Lawyers list, an honor reflecting her outstanding work, leadership, and impact in the legal community. Associates Kevin Moore, Sukayna Jaidi, and Andrew Mathews are also being recognized as 2027 Southern California Super Lawyers Rising Stars. Our team is being honored for their distinguished service and dedication in Family Law, Civil, Business, Construction, and Personal Injury Litigation. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara, LLP

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Snell & Wilmer’s Orange County Office Recognized as One of the “Best Places to Work” by the Orange County Business Journal

August 16, 2026 — Snell & Wilmer
ORANGE COUNTY – Snell & Wilmer is pleased to announce that its Orange County office has been selected as one of the 2026 “Best Places to Work in Orange County” by the Orange County Business Journal. This recognition honors outstanding employers that foster exceptional workplace cultures and demonstrate a strong commitment to employee engagement, professional development, and organizational excellence. The annual awards recognize Orange County employers that create positive workplace environments and set the standard for employee satisfaction and organizational success. Honorees are selected through a comprehensive evaluation process that includes confidential employee surveys and an independent assessment of company policies, practices, philosophy, systems, and demographics. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Snell & Wilmer

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Congratulations to Reno Partner Karen Baytosh for Securing a Complete Dismissal via a Motion for Summary Judgment

July 13, 2026 — Dolores Montoya - Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara LLP
BWB&O is proud to announce that Reno Partner Karen Baytosh received a significant victory on behalf of the firm’s Developer Client in a high-exposure personal injury matter. Plaintiff, a teenager, was struck by an intoxicated driver while walking her dog at night, sustaining catastrophic injuries requiring 24-hour critical care for the remainder of her life. Plaintiff’s Guardian brought suit against the drunk driver and her husband, the City, and BWB&O’s Developer Clients, alleging that the City and Developers failed to improve street lighting and install a sidewalk that would have prevented the accident. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara LLP

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Connecticut Expands Construction Wage-Theft Liability and Prevailing Wage Recordkeeping Requirements

June 29, 2026 — Anand Gupta & Guest Contributor - Construction Law Zone
This post was co-authored by Labor + Employment group lawyer Christopher Costain, Hayden Eckblom (Summer Intern), and Pasqualina Fox-Mina (Summer Associate). Hayden and Pasqualina are not admitted to practice law. On May 11, 2026, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Public Act 26-12, a wide-ranging bill centered around employee rights. Our colleagues in Robinson+Cole’s Labor, Employment, Benefits + Immigration group recently published a legal update summarizing the key components of Public Act 26-12. Here, we focus on the Wage Theft and Prevailing Wage concepts in the bill that directly relate to the construction industry. Wage Theft With exceptions for public works and small residential projects, general contractors will be jointly and severally liable for any unpaid wages owed to an employee of a subcontractor of any tier on private construction projects, beginning with contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2027. As we know, there is a separate regime for public works projects involving payment bonds. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Anand Gupta, Robinson & Cole LLP
Mr. Gupta may be contacted at agupta@rc.com

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It’s More Than a Feeling: Proving Construction Damages and When You Should Hire an Expert to Help Do It

July 27, 2026 — Bradley E. Sands & Katie McCracken - ConsensusDocs
When you win a bid, you might be singing that everything is going your way. Then something goes wrong. The owner hands you defective plans, sits on RFI responses or other critical information, or otherwise upends the work. The costs pile up through no fault of your own. You feel wronged, and you want to be made whole. But a feeling that you got burned is not enough. To recover, that feeling has to become something the law recognizes as damages. So, what are damages, and how do you prove them? At bottom, contract damages are the money that puts the non-breaching party (i.e., the party that doesn’t breach the contract) in the position it would have occupied had the contract been performed. Reprinted courtesy of Bradley E. Sands, Jones Walker LLP and Katie McCracken, Summer Associate, University of Georgia School of Law Read the full story...
Mr. Sands may be contacted at bsands@joneswalker.com

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The AI Knows Too Much: When Employees Feed Trade Secrets into Generative AI Tools

April 14, 2026 — Kazim A. Naqvi & John V. Mysliwiec - Sheppard
Every time an employee pastes proprietary source code, a customer list, or a confidential business strategy into ChatGPT, Claude, or Google Gemini, they may be quietly dismantling the legal protections that make those secrets worth protecting. Courts and regulators are only beginning to grapple with this problem, and right now, the burden of preventing it falls squarely on employers. The Legal Stakes Under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) and the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“UTSA”) as adopted across most states, a trade secret plaintiff must show that the information at issue was subject to reasonable measures to maintain its secrecy. Courts have historically credited measures like confidentiality agreements, physical access controls, and employee training—but those safeguards were designed for a world of thumb drives and disgruntled employees. They were not built for a world where a well-meaning engineer can, in seconds, transmit an entire corpus of proprietary data to a third-party AI platform operating under terms of service that may permit the provider to use inputs for model training. Reprinted courtesy of Kazim A. Naqvi, Sheppard and John V. Mysliwiec, Sheppard Mr. Naqvi may be contacted at knaqvi@sheppard.com Mr. Mysliwiec may be contacted at jmysliwiec@sheppard.com Read the full story...

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