Greg Ziegler, Attorney and Trusted Advisor, Focuses on Risk Reduction to Protect Legal Clients

Attorney Greg Ziegler has developed a powerful approach to protect his architecture and engineering clients. Ziegler focuses on reducing risk faced by the professionals he represents. For Greg Ziegler attorney, risk reduction is at the heart of his work in protecting and empowering clients.

“Risk is the common denominator, as every client of ours who is fortunate enough to experience success will also experience legal issues,” Ziegler said recently. “Selection of the project and client and contract negotiation and execution are common risk points.”

IMAGE: SPACE COAST DAILY

A Long History with Design and Construction

Ziegler is a Dallas-based attorney specializing in representing engineers and architects. His career has been deeply shaped by his father, a designer who designed and built the Ziegler family home. Gregory Ziegler attorney has a deep commitment to helping design professionals.

As a child, Ziegler was surrounded by architecture drawings and construction tools and materials. As a child, he pored over architectural drawings and helped lay brick and install insulation. This work gave Ziegler a deep appreciation for the complexities of the design and construction processes.

“That experience solidified my enamorment with the design process and respect for the creativity and vision of the designers and the craftsmanship and hands-on work of sub-contractors,” he said. “When I decided to become a lawyer, my respect and admiration for the design community led me to help design professionals.”

Attorney Greg Ziegler attended the University of Michigan and graduated from Southern Methodist University. He attended the Texas Tech School of Law and earned his J.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 1994.

Ziegler is admitted to practice in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, U.S. district courts throughout Texas, the U.S. Court of Appeals (5th district), U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Supreme Court.

His practice is expansive, and includes:

• Commercial and transactional Law
• Construction litigation
• Employment and labor
• Health law
• Premises liability
• Products liability
• Professional liability
• Transportation

Keen Focus on Reducing Client Risk

His practice focuses on a vigorous protection of his clients and reducing risk. Risk reduction shapes his approach to supporting architects, engineers and designers at every stage in their professional lives. By supporting clients through the lens of risk reduction, Greogory Ziegler attorney balances the needs for maximizing clients’ revenue with reducing exposure.

“Risk arises from the projects and clients designers choose to take on, the contract language they’re willing to live with, and the time, labor, and money they’re willing to invest in contract performance,” Ziegler said. “It’s a risk versus revenue balance decision-making process.”

The process begins in understanding each client’s needs, goals, financial priorities and risk tolerance. “We understand the balance between our clients’ need for business versus the need for risk protection. This requires a balancing act,” Ziegler said. When negotiating contracts for clients, Ziegler stresses that my contract is iron-clad.

“The truth is every contract negotiation involves compromise. It does our clients no good to insist on an iron-clad agreement and lose the business,” Ziegler said. “So, going into negotiations, we first obtain our client’s bottom-line goals and deal-breakers to strike the right balance to help our clients achieve the project while gaining as much protection as possible knowing that negotiation is an exercise in compromise.”

Part of the counsel process involves advising clients when to walk away. Ziegler shared the story of a client that was asked to play a key role in the design of a major sports stadium. While the job was lucrative, the stadium owner had included several onerous, take-it-or-leave-it provisions.

“After a week of analysis and agonizing, I recommended declining the project,” Ziegler said. “The client followed my advice. Ultimately, the project was a risk and financial disaster for the design team, so my client dodged a bullet.”

Reducing Risk After Contract Is Signed

Once a contract is signed, Ziegler continues to focus on risk-reduction strategies, advising clients on how to manage projects to ensure compliance. Ziegler counsels clients to create roadmaps not just for project performance but also contract compliance.

The latter involves “remaining mindful of what services are within the client’s scope of work and what are not (and avoid rendering services beyond that scope without a change order or add services agreement that ensures payment for those services,” Ziegler said.

Communication and documentation strategies are essential, he said. “Communication strategies are important … engaging in careful and thoughtful written communication with the client’s client and other project team members with the mindful approach of whether the author of the communication as written or stated would help them as a professional and company if it were read to a jury in court,” he said.

“Documentation strategies are also key, which involves capturing verbal communications in meetings with the owner, other designers, and contractors so that cursory meeting minutes or agenda items are not the sole source of corroborating evidence that the communication occurred and its substance.”

Giving Clients Perspective on Risk

Attorney Greg ZIegler believes in providing clients a clear-headed perspective on risk and what it means. A frank conversation about risk can help clients understand its importance and what it can mean for their firms and themselves.

“First, be aware that risk is a real dynamic. Understand that it is not enough to be a good architect, engineer, surveyor, landscape architect, or building inspector,” Ziegler advises. “Nor is it good enough to just do a good job.”

Despite best intentions, projects can become complex and full of conflict that can lead to litigation. “The road to lawsuits is paved with good designers who did their job well. Designers must view every aspect of their services through the lens of a potential claim and take steps to mitigate the risk of claim occurrence and bad outcomes,” he said.

His advice?

“Consult with legal counsel in advance of projects, whether in-house counsel or the company’s outside law firm, to become educated about risk potential,” he said. “Stay abreast of risk and liability trends to foresee potential problems so that mitigation steps can be taken in advance. Risk, claims, and liability are part of the design and construction business.”

Success is paradoxical, Ziegler notes. “If our clients are successful, they will have many projects. But the unfortunate reality is that success and business growth translate into greater claim opportunities, so mindfulness and risk mitigation efforts should be incorporated into the ordinary course of rendering design services,” he said.

Ziegler’s success comes from his passionate protection of clients at each phase of their work. This commitment helps clients plan and work thoughtfully with a risk-centric approach designed to protect business and personal interests at every turn.

IMAGE: PEXELS

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