Randy Hafer is Chair of the firm's Litigation Department and a senior partner on the Construction & Infrastructure Projects Team. Throughout his entire career Mr. Hafer has focused his practice exclusively on issues related to the construction industry. He has been involved in matters all over the United States and internationally on a wide variety of construction projects, including tunnels, wastewater treatment plants, airports, power plants, mass transit systems, mining facilities, bridges and highways, hospitals, office buildings, sports arenas, resort condominiums, universities and schools, manufacturing and processing facilities, and military facilities.

For the past 20 years, Mr. Hafer’s practice has focused on the representation of public owners on large infrastructure projects, including the following:

• The Central Artery/Tunnel Project (the “Big Dig”);

• The Hartford Connecticut Clean Water Project;

• The Boston Harbor Project for Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (“MWRA”);

• The MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel for MWRA;

• Deep Tunnel and Pollution Abatement Program for Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (“MMSD”);

• Logan Airport Modernization Project for Massachusetts Port Authority;

• CSO Tunnel Project for the Narragansett Bay Commission in Rhode Island;

• Water/wastewater projects for the City of Atlanta, Georgia;

• The Cobb County, Georgia Water Authority Chattahoochee and South Cobb Tunnel Projects; and

• Dekalb County, Georgia Scott Candler Water Treatment Plant.

In addition to the above, Mr. Hafer’s experience includes:

• Represented the design-build-operate-maintain contractor on the $2 billion Tren Urbano mass transit system in San Juan, Puerto Rico – a Federal Transit Administration “demonstration” project;

• Represents a consortium of international contractors, designers and OEM’s in an ICC arbitration involving a hydro-electric plant in Panama;

• Represents one of the world’s largest rail transportation OEM’s in a AAA arbitration involving the long-term maintenance of 400 locomotives;

• Represents the owner/developer in a AAA arbitration involving construction of a luxury condominium project in Las Vegas; and

• Represented one of the world’s largest energy sector companies as Project Counsel on an off-shore oil and gas production platform in Brazil.

Mr. Hafer focuses much of his practice on the prevention of construction related disputes through effective risk allocation and management and contract drafting. Mr. Hafer often works as a member of the owner’s project management team at the “front end” of projects to achieve these goals. He also leads teams providing clients with the Construction Group’s Project Counsel service.

Mr. Hafer works directly with construction project participants to avoid disputes and effectively and efficiently resolve, on a “real-time” basis, those disputes that cannot be avoided. He is well-versed and experienced in negotiation, mediation, arbitration, dispute review boards and other forms of construction ADR. Mr. Hafer has also helped create and has successfully implemented customized dispute resolution processes to fit the particular needs of a project when other more traditional ADR procedures are not working.

In addition to extensive construction ADR experience, Mr. Hafer has presented construction cases to judges, juries in a number of state and federal courts across the country, and to administrative boards of federal, state and local government agencies. Mr. Hafer also has extensive appellate experience. He has argued cases before the North Carolina, Wisconsin and Florida courts of appeals, and he is a member of the federal courts of appeal for the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits.

Claims avoidance and education are an important part of Mr. Hafer’s practice. He is a frequent speaker at the Construction Superconference and has spoken at the American Bar Association Forum Committee on the Construction Industry, the American Underground Construction Association, the Design Build Institute of America, and other industry related programs.

Mr. Hafer was listed in the 2009 and 2010 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business for Construction Law and he was listed as #1 in the 2011 and 2012 editions. He was also listed in the 2009, 2011 and 2012 editions of Legal 500 US for Real Estate and Construction Law. He was recognized in 2013 and the two years immediately preceding by other practicing attorneys as one of the Best Lawyers in America^® in the field of Construction Law. He was listed in The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers for 2009 and 2011 and The International Who's Who of Construction Lawyers in 2010. He is a Fellow of The American College of Construction Lawyers. Mr. Hafer was named a Georgia "Super Lawyer" in the area of Alternative Dispute Resolution in 2009 and in the area of Construction Litigation in 2013 and the four years immediately preceding and a Top 100 Georgia "Super Lawyer" in 2011 by SuperLawyers magazine. Mr. Hafer is AV^® rated by Martindale-Hubbell.*

*CV, BV, and AV are registered certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedure's standards and policies.