Any construction project is an enormously complex undertaking with thousands (or tens of thousands) of moving parts. This is especially true with large projects, particularly linear ones.

Enormous sums of money are at stake. Legal, financial and political stakeholders have a significant influence. In-service dates have major dollar amounts attached to them. A slipped schedule can be unbelievably expensive. In response to these realities, we have developed a project planning capability, which allows us to help ensure that our clients are not blindsided by unanticipated issues or delays.

Legal expertise is pointless if a project isn’t finished on time. The goal, after all, is to build something on schedule and on budget. This happens through careful, thorough and comprehensive planning by professionals who really know what they’re doing. We ask a LOT of questions.

Our process begins years before construction does. It starts with the planned completion date. Everything works backwards from that. Once that’s determined, our lawyers then perform a jurisdictional review, identifying parcel by parcel which regulatory processes and agencies will influence a project’s completion.

This is painstaking, thorough work, in which we review a myriad of information sources such as title searches, online searches, tax records and other public records, as well as personally inspecting the actual parcels firsthand. The objective is to identify issues like development plans, as well as ascertaining applicable regulatory processes.  We know what to look for and how to best navigate the process.

Rutter & Roy lawyers then develop a preliminary project schedule and prepare a risk register, identifying potential schedule risks. We assemble the register and develop approaches to managing the identified risks.

For instance, is a pipeline being constructed using an open cut or horizontal drilling? What permitting will each of these require? When should the application be submitted? To whom? If there are multiple regulatory agencies, can we combine or streamline their processes to minimize the number of public hearings? Can we make it smoother or easier for the regulator to combine, for instance, a Green Acres hearing and a conservation restriction release hearing?

This phase of the planning process is extremely detailed. It also leverages our relationship with the regulatory agencies involved. We always endeavor to consider how regulators think, what is important to them, what they need.

At the end, we have developed an extremely detailed master schedule that outlines every possible step. This is really the only way to manage a large-scale project.

Often, clients working with Rutter & Roy for the first time are unfamiliar with lawyers who provide this type of planning. However, to us, it’s an integral part of delivering legal services as efficiently as possible.

Given the complexity involved, and the sums of money at stake, it only makes sense to work with attorneys who know the regulators, know the process and are trained to look under every rock and behind every tree -- both figuratively and literally.

Whether the project is a pipeline, a compressor station, or something new like an offshore wind turbine, there is no substitute for hands-on familiarity with the relevant legal issues. Which means there’s no substitute for Rutter & Roy.