Arbitration, mediation, and independent initial decisions.

On the American Arbitration Association panel since 1993, sitting as sole arbitrator, chairman, and panel member on cases running from under $20,000 to over $20 million.

John Rusk came to the panel from the field, not from a firm. He has written CPM schedules, underpinned structures, built cabinets, supervised plumbers, and written and received change orders. When an expert explains why a float path collapsed or why a wall assembly failed, he does not need the explanation translated.

As a non-lawyer neutral he brings a working knowledge of construction law without an advocate's habits. Arbitration's real advantages — expedited discovery, flexible presentation of proof, and the freedom to concentrate on the issues that actually decide the case — only pay off if the arbitrator uses them, and he does. Read the contract, investigate the facts, apply the law, decide.

Parties in a dispute are carrying a business at the same time. The sooner they can stop looking backward at the project, the better off they are, and he runs hearings with that in mind.

• AppointmentSole arbitrator, panel chairman, or panel member
• RangeUnder $20,000 through matters over $20 million
• PanelAmerican Arbitration Association since 1993 · Neutral ID 125869
• PartiesOwners, general contractors, subcontractors, designers and architects, developers, municipalities and agencies, schools, bonding companies, vendors
• Subject matterPay requests, time and delay, change orders, project accounting, contract interpretation, workmanship, wrongful termination, interior design and decorating
• HearingsIn person or by Zoom

Three things have to be in the room at once: a trained process, a realistic read of how the case would come out, and someone who actually understands the work.

John Rusk studied decision sciences and improvisation at Carnegie Mellon, negotiation at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, and mediation at the Center for Dispute Resolution. That training covers both ends of a construction mediation: the explosive emotions the parties bring, and the cool reason, formulas, and law the bonding companies and insurers bring.

Having arbitrated since 1993, he knows what arbitrators and courts treat as determinative, and he knows the likely range of awards. A party arguing for a number well outside that range will hear so from him, privately.

And after more than forty years in the industry, he understands the bricks, mortar, steel, change orders, and CPM schedules the way few mediators can — along with the profit and loss statements, the construction accounting, and the insurance issues sitting underneath them.

Sessions are built with the attorneys rather than imposed on them. Both sides prepare a spreadsheet of claims and counterclaims and a position paper keyed to it, with documents attached, so the parties understand each other's positions before anyone sits down. The session then works through the dispute issue by issue — not to reach agreement in that first pass, but to see what the case would look like if it did not settle. Parties separate to weigh their chances honestly, offers are exchanged, and settlements are usually reached.

The work is to settle the financial and legal issues. Often the personal conflict can be settled too. The mediations he counts highest are the ones where the parties came out willing to work together again.

• Mediating since1993
• CertificationCertified Mediator, International Mediation Institute
• Process trainingCenter for Dispute Resolution
• NegotiationProgram on Negotiation, Harvard Law School
• ScaleTwo- to five-party matters, and multi-party sessions with as many as 35 participants
• Particular strengthEmotionally charged disputes between parties who once had a productive relationship

For decades the architect decided contractor claims and certified terminations under AIA contracts — while working under the owner's direction. The conflict is structural, and everyone in the industry knows it.

The results are predictable. Contractors challenge the architect's decision as biased, the dispute escalates, the job slows or stops. And termination decisions are expensive to get wrong: an improper determination can cost owners, contractors, lenders, and sureties a great deal of money.

In 2007 the AIA changed its contract language to let the parties name an independent initial decision maker instead. That small change does real work. A party can raise a concern early without starting a formal fight. Claims that get answered promptly keep the project moving. And a contractor who is still being heard is a contractor who is still on the job, rather than one who has to be replaced.

Constructive Decisions serves as a neutral IDM under AIA contracts. These are sensitive decisions, and John Rusk treats them that way. Fees are charged only if a dispute arises and the service is actually used — the designation costs nothing until it is needed. Please get in touch before writing it into the contract.

• Contract basisAIA agreements, 2007 language onward
• NamedAt contract execution, by agreement of the parties
• FeesOnly if a dispute arises and a decision is needed
• Before signingContact the firm to confirm availability and terms