Rosemary Robinson
Partner
Services & Specializations
Admissions
California;
USDC, Central District of California
Address
200 Spectrum Center Drive, Suite 1650, Irvine, CA 92618
Office Tel.
949.705.0657
Overview
Rosemary represents owners, developers, and contractors on both public and private projects, ranging from high-end residential to billion-dollar infrastructure. She specializes in drafting and negotiating project contracts; counselling parties through distressed development and construction projects; and litigating over contract breach, defective construction, and bodily injury defense.
Rosemary has worked projects including commercial ground-up and renovation; light-rail; airports; multiple-story parking structures; underground pipeline systems; cold-storage refrigeration plants; power plants; concrete demolition, cutting and pouring; utility construction; luxury resort/hospitality construction and upgrades; geothermal power energy plants; Army barracks and associated campuses; community colleges; charter schools; public school districts; warehouse and distribution centers; micro-tunneling under a large river bed; sanitation districts; residential developments (homes, condos and townhomes); and high-end luxury homes.
She counsels clients through every aspect of a construction project, including:
- Contract drafting/negotiation (AIA, ConsensusDocs, IPD, custom-created, public and private)
- Design-Bid-Build (aka lump sum), Design-Build, Progressive Design Build, Contract Manager
- Bid Protests
- Change order disputes
- Public Works Projects
- Prevailing wage compliance
- Delay claims (differing site conditions, defective plans and specifications, inefficiency, acceleration,
suspension, impact, ripple) - Construction site accidents and bodily injury defense
- Defense of trade partners enrolled in OCIPs/CCIPs
- Construction defects (commercial and residential)
- Environmental/safety regulations and Hazardous Materials (OSHA, SWPPP, Silica, mold, asbestos, PCBs, LBP)
- Geotechnical and ground stabilization
- Minority contracting issues
- Mechanics liens, stop notices, performance/payment bond claims, prompt payment laws
- Collections and payment issues
- Secured a multi-million-dollar settlement for the owner of a cold-storage facility fraught with electrical, mechanical and soil defects.
- Represented myriad owners, developers and contractors in countless construction defect actions, both commercial and residential.
- Defended developers and trade partners in bodily injury lawsuits brought by subcontractor employees and/or third parties.
- Represented a large prime contractor and subcontractors in lawsuit concerning defective concrete specifications causing a nine-month project delay against the County owner, project engineer and structural engineer.
- Represented a contractor in a dispute with the U.S. government regarding construction of military bases wherein the government sought to void multiple contracts and recoup all payments based on alleged bidding errors.
- Counseled a hotel owner on construction contracts and project issues arising from a substantial remodel of a luxury hotel.
- Argued successful bid protests for contractors against various public entities such as public-school districts, cities and counties.
- Counseled multiple owners replacing defaulting contractors with new primes, including negotiating associated indemnities, assignments and drafting new contracts with all trade partners and vendors.
- Counselled private owners on prevailing wage compliance triggered by use of public funds, lease requirements, dedication of land to the public, and/or other situations triggering compliance for a non-public owner, including navigating ability to segregate project to avoid prevailing wage, or, if not, counselling on required language for project documents (RFPs, Bid Packages, contracts), DIR compliance, Certified Payroll Records requirements, and negotiating with contractors unsophisticated with prevailing wage, PLA or skilled-and-trained-workforce compliance.
- Prevailed on Privette doctrine Motion for Summary Judgement to get developer dismissed from $27MM personal injury lawsuit, and was awarded $75k in costs to defend the meritless lawsuit.
- Counseled special district on compliance with new prevailing wage laws under 2021 Kaanaana decision applying prevailing wage laws to non-construction work for special districts, including negotiations with DIR regarding applicability of existing classifications and creation of new ones using realistic market wages in a non-construction/union industry.
- Commercial Real Estate Visionary, Los Angeles Times, 2021
- Super Lawyers® Rising Stars, Construction and Business Litigation, 2011-2012
- JD, University of California, Los Angeles, 1997
- BA (Political Studies), high honors, cum honoribus, Pitzer College, 1994
- Co-presenter. “Navigating California Prevailing Wage Law & Employment Law Land Mines,” Procopio’s Annual Construction Law Forum, webinar, November 10, 2022.
- Panelist. “Disrupting the Industry Norms: A Generational Perspective from Women in Finance,” Risk Management Association, Orange County Chapter, September 21, 2022.
- Presenter. “Breaking Ground Without Breaking the Law: Private Construction v. Public Works, December 7, 2021.
- Panelist. “Schedule Delays in the Construction Industry,” AACE San Francisco and AGC California, April 27, 2021.
- Co-presenter. Associated General Contractors Annual Conference, October 18, 2019.
- Co-presenter. Construction seminar, May 30, 2018.
- Co-presenter. “Mediating the Luxury, Single-Family Home Construction Case,” West Coast Casualty Construction Defect Conference, May 18, 2018.
- Presenter. “Green Building Construction: Best Practices to Mitigate your Company’s Liability Through Educated Bidding Strategies and Negotiation of Specific Contract Clauses,” National Association of Women in Construction, Orange County Chapter, June 2010.
- Co-presenter. “Green Building Construction: Rewards, Rules and Risks,” 24th Annual Construction Superconference, December 1, 2009.
- Co-presenter. “Mechanic’s Liens,” Associated General Contractors Fall Conference, October 30, 2009.
- Co-presenter. “Rewards and Risks to Green Building Construction,” U.S. Green Building Council, September 24, 2009.
- Co-presenter. “Legally Green: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Green Building Construction,” AFG-CLC Working Weekend, August 28, 2009.
- Co-presenter. “Lean & Green Legally: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Lean Construction and Green Building,” CURT National Conference, November 11, 2008.
- Speaker. “E-Discovery in the Age of Shared, Dynamic Databases Like BIM,” The Construction Users’ Roundtable Quarterly Meeting, April 8, 2008.
- Presenter. “Update on Lien, Bond, Stop Notice and Prompt Payment Laws,” March 2001 and July 2003.
- Speaker. “Timetable for Mechanics’ Liens, Stop Notices, Lis Pendens, and Prompt Payment Issues,” May 1, 2002.
- State Bar of California
- Orange County Bar Association
- Associated General Contractors
- Board of Directors, Orange County District
- Legal Advisory Committee, Chair 2020-2021, Vice-Chair 2019
- “Procopio Adds Three California Attorneys,” Law.com, August 13, 2022.
