Real Estate & Construction News Roundup (4/1/26) – President Trump’s EO Affects Federal Funding, Fannie Mae Accepts Crypto-Backed Mortgages, Private Sector Construction Weakness Offsets Public Sector Gains
April 08, 2026 —
Pillsbury's Construction & Real Estate Law Team - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real Estate Law BlogIn our latest roundup, California to pursue office-to-housing conversions, hoteliers to increase investment in artificial intelligence, private credit exodus to boost commercial real estate capital, and more!
- President Donald Trump’s executive order to remove regulatory barriers to affordable home construction could affect federal funding for cities and states that don’t follow what the order calls “regulatory best practices,” including faster permitting, fewer green building mandates and relaxed limits on exurban development. (Robyn Griggs Lawrence, Multifamily Dive)
- California state policymakers have been pursuing policy changes that remove barriers to converting older commercial buildings into housing. (Keith Loria, Construction Dive)
- Private sector weakness largely offset modest gains in public construction spending, despite data center gains. (Sebastian Obando, Construction Dive)
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Pillsbury's Construction & Real Estate Law Team
Don’t Breach Your Contract, but If You Do, Don’t Breach First
December 22, 2025 —
Christopher G. Hill - Construction Law MusingsWell, it’s been a while since my last post here at
Musings due to travel, work, Thanksgiving, etc. so I thought I’d let a recent case remind us all that while breaching a construction contract is bad, doing it first is even worse. This is the so called “doctrine of first breach” that basically states that if both parties are in breach (or even just one), then the first to breach is the one that will bear the costs of breach. The doctrine also states that the one first to breach first can’t enforce any of its rights going forward.
The plaintiff in
SEG Props. LLC v. NTC Mazzuca Constr.,Inc., the Virginia Court of Appeals considered a first breach scenario that was pretty extreme. The basic facts are as follows:
SEG hired Mazzuca to build a private shooting range and hired a property manager (Jones, Lang, LaSalle, Inc. (“JLL”)) as its project representative. Per the contract, if Mazzuca provided a payment application on or before the 25th of the month, payment was due by the 25th of the following month. In no event was payment to be made more than 30 days from receipt of the payment application by the owner’s representative. Even where there was a dispute, the undisputed amounts were to be paid. Mazzuca and JLL used a so called “pencil” method for payment applications that involved JLL reviewing the payment applications for errors and then a final payment application with the corrections being sent to the Architect. Needless to say there were change orders and disputes, but after the smoke cleared, it was obvious that from the first payment application, SEG had failed to make timely payment (for the whole saga, please read the case as it is too long for this post). Later, SEG terminated Mazzuca for cause upon one day’s notice that SEG would be supplementing Mazzuca’s workforce.
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The Law Office of Christopher G. HillMr. Hill may be contacted at
chrisghill@constructionlawva.com
2026 Southern California Super Lawyers Recognizes 14 Snell & Wilmer Attorneys
March 03, 2026 —
Snell & WilmerLOS ANGELES AND ORANGE COUNTY – Snell & Wilmer is pleased to announce that 14 attorneys in its Los Angeles and Orange County offices have been selected for inclusion in the 2026 Southern California Super Lawyers publication. Of those 15, six were recognized as Rising Stars.
Super Lawyers is a listing of lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations, and peer evaluations. The final published list represents no more than 5 percent of the lawyers in the state.
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Snell & Wilmer
HHMR and Every One of its Partners Recognized by Legal 500 in Denver Elite – Real Estate
April 20, 2026 —
David McLain - Colorado Construction Litigation BlogHiggins, Hopkins, McLain & Roswell, LLC is pleased to announce its recognition as a Tier 1 firm in the Denver Elite rankings for Real Estate, a category that includes construction law and construction litigation, by The Legal 500. In addition, each of the firm’s partners has been individually recognized in the same rankings.
The firm’s individual recognitions include:
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David McLain, Higgins, Hopkins, McLain & Roswell, LLCMr. McLain may be contacted at
mclain@hhmrlaw.com
A New Vision for Safety: Construction Safety Week’s Five-Year Plan
February 17, 2026 —
Adam Jelen - Construction ExecutiveConstruction Safety Week has long been a powerful show of force—a catalyst for bringing the industry together and focusing on the critical importance of health and safety. Over the last decade, we’ve made meaningful strides: advancing best practices, transitioning from hard hats to helmets, shedding light on vital issues such as mental health, fostering a culture of care and accountability and creating partnerships and initiatives that improve jobsite safety.
Building on the progress we’ve made, we’ve launched a bold five-year vision to bring everyone together with trust and respect and to drive alignment in how safety is understood, owned and engineered at every step of the project. This is an industrywide effort to further deepen the culture of care centered around respect for the skilled craft and through all aspects of a project where all team members share this responsibility, this respect, across every phase: design, planning, construction and beyond.
Reprinted courtesy of
Adam Jelen, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.
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Subrogation Insight: Expert Testimony Admissible Despite Post-Loss Repairs
December 30, 2025 —
Gus Sara - The Subrogation StrategistIn Ghaznavi v. Arby Constr., Inc., No. 14-24-00213-CV, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 839, the Court of Appeals of Texas (Court of Appeals) considered whether the trial court properly excluded the plaintiffs’, Kambiz Moavenzadeh Ghaznavi and Anahita Nokkonejad (collectively, the Ghaznavis), liability expert. The case arose from a fire at the Ghaznavis’ residence. The trial court held that because the Ghaznavis’ expert did not physically inspect certain fire damaged areas before they were repaired, the expert’s testimony was unreliable and thus inadmissible. The Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s ruling, finding that the expert’s review of photographs of the repaired areas and his testimony explaining his opinions were sufficient to survive summary judgment.
In this case, the Ghaznavis’ hired the defendant, Arby Construction Inc. d/b/a National Residential Services (Arby Constr.), to install new tiling in a corridor inside their home. The corridor was adjacent to the garage. While Arby Constr. was performing the work, the Ghaznavis asked the defendant to fix an outlet inside the garage that was not working. Arby Constr. installed a new wire that connected the outlet to the garage door opener at the ceiling of the garage. Less than 2 months later, a fire occurred in the garage area. The fire marshal placed the origin of the fire in the ceiling of the corridor adjacent to the garage. The fire marshal’s report stated that “faulty wiring in the corridor behind the garage” caused the fire.
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Gus Sara, White and WilliamsMr. Sara may be contacted at
sarag@whiteandwilliams.com
GRSM Marks Seventh Anniversary as First and Only Full-Service Law Firm in All 50 States, Climbs to #70 on Am Law 100
April 20, 2026 —
Gordon Rees Scully MansukhaniGordon Rees Scully Mansukhani proudly celebrates the seventh anniversary of its becoming the first and only full-service law firm with offices and attorneys in all 50 states. Since launching its innovative 50-state platform in April 2019, GRSM has experienced extraordinary growth across markets, practices, and client relationships.
In the past seven years, GRSM has expanded its footprint with 20 new offices in both major and secondary markets and doubled its attorney headcount, growing from 940 to more than 2000 lawyers. This growth has propelled GRSM from the 40th to the 11th largest law firm in the United States, according to Law360, while also driving a significant rise on the Am Law 100 rankings, from #103 in 2019 to #70 in 2026. GRSM has served nearly half of the Fortune 500, a testament to its deep bench of lawyers and national capabilities.
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Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani
Lewis Brisbois Ranked Tier 1 Nationally for Seven Practice Areas in 2026 Best Law Firms
January 06, 2026 —
Lewis Brisbois NewsroomNovember 6, 2025) - Lewis Brisbois has been ranked Tier 1 nationally by Best Lawyers for 'Appellate Practice,' 'Commercial Litigation,' ‘Insurance Law,’ 'Litigation - Con
New Jersey Federal Court Examines And Applies The “j.(5)” Ongoing Operations ExclusionNevada Assembly Sends Construction Defect Bill to SenateNavigating Threshold Arbitration Issues in Construction ContractsBroker for Homeowners Policy Has No Duty to Advise Insureds on Excess Flood CoverageWhite and Williams Earns Tier 1 Rankings from U.S. News "Best Law Firms" 2020Packard Condominiums Settled with Kosene & Kosene ResidentialLos Angeles Team Secures Summary Judgment for Hotel Owner & Manager in Tenant’s LawsuitNY Construction Safety Firm Falsely Certified Workers, Says Manhattan DACourthouse Reporter Series - How to Avoid Having Your COVID-19 Expert StrickenDistrict Court denies Carpenters Union Motion to Dismiss RICO case- What it MeansCalifornia Complex Civil Litigation Superior Court PanelsThe G2G Year in Review: 2019Dispute Over Amount Insured Owes Public Adjuster ResolvedWhen an Insurer Proceeds as Subrogee, Defendants Cannot Assert Contribution Claims Against the InsuredRooftop Solar Leases Scaring Buyers When Homeowners SellRelated’s $1 Billion Los Angeles Project Opens After 15-Year WaitCaterpillar Said to Be Focus of Senate Overseas Tax ProbeWhy and When Construction Robotics Makes SenseNew Iowa Law Revises Construction Defects Statute of ReposeCarbon Sequestration Can Combat Global Warming, Sometimes in Unexpected WaysEnforceability Of Subcontract “Pay-When-Paid” Provisions – An Important UpdateInsurer’s “Failure to Cooperate” DefenseThe Real Cost of ‘Dirt Cheap’ Walmart & Amazon Tiny Homes: 10 Things Consumers Should KnowCouple Claims ADA Renovation Lead to Construction DefectsTwo New Developments in Sanatoga, PennsylvaniaAfter $15 Million Settlement, Association Gets $7.7 Million From Additional SubcontractorTennessee Looks to Define Improvements to Real PropertyPresident Obama Vetoes Keystone Pipeline BillNew Year’s Resolution: Engineering the “Tee-Up Day” for Complex Construction MediationsWisconsin “property damage” caused by an “occurrence.”No Coverage for Contractor's Faulty WorkmanshipThe Credibility of Your Expert (Including Your Delay Expert) Matters in Construction DisputesHail Damage Requires Replacement of Even Undamaged SidingJust When You Thought the Green Building Risk Discussion Was Over. . .Real Estate Developer Convicted in $1.3 Billion Tax Case After Juror RemovedWhat is a “Force Majeure” Clause? Do I Need one in my Contract? Three Options For Contractors, Subcontractors and Suppliers to ConsiderHomeowner Sues Brick Manufacturer for Spalling BricksFirm Offers Tips on Construction Defects in ColoradoBuild Back Better Includes Historic Expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit ProgramColorado’s Federal District Court Finds Carriers Have Joint and Several Defense DutiesAarow Equipment v. Travelers- An UpdateEPA Issues Interpretive Statement on Application of NPDES Permit System to Releases of Pollutants to GroundwaterContractors: Consult Your Insurance Broker Regarding Your CGL PolicyHousing Markets Continue to ImproveKY Mining Accident Not a Covered Occurrence Under Commercial General Liability PolicyCondo Owners Suing Bank for Failing to Disclose DefectsNot so Fast! How Does Revoking Acceleration of a Note Impact the Statute of Limitations?Homeowner Survives Motion to Dismiss Depreciation ClaimsColorado’s New Construction Defect Law Takes Effect in September: What You Need to KnowTexas Considers a Quartet of Construction Billspan itemprop="name">Insurers Need only Prove that Other Coverage Exists for Construction Defect Claims
Disputes Will Not Be Subject to Arbitration Provision If There Is No “Significant Relationship”Handling Construction Defect Claims – New Edition ReleasedHawaii Federal District Court Compels AppraisalConflicts of Laws, Deficiency Actions, and Statutes of Limitations – Oh My!Homeowner’s Claims Defeated Because “Gravamen” of Complaint was Fraud, not Breach of ContractTop 10 Take-Aways from the 2024 Annual Forum Meeting in New Orleansity in their Contract to Fraud?
Renters Who Bought Cannot Sue for Construction DefectsKeller Group Fires Two Executives in Suspected Australia Profits Reporting FraudMillennials Want Houses, Just Like Everybody Else
