Mr. Tom Kirkwood is a partner in Thompson Hine's Construction practice. He has handled private and public sector construction transactions and claims litigation for owners, developers, designers, CMs, and contractors since 1974. Tom has served as special counsel to such major developments as Cincinnati's $600 million riverfront Banks project and has served as counsel to public agencies for sewer, flood control, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' projects. He has appeared on behalf of clients in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the Kentucky Supreme Court, and federal district courts or state trial courts in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Georgia, West Virginia, and Florida.

Tom has trial, arbitration, mediation and alternative dispute resolution experience in a broad range of cases involving the design professional standard of care, structural failures, heavy and highway, tunnels, roofs, delay and disruption claims, CPM analysis and critical compensable delay issues, construction administration, project controls, GMP disputes, differing site conditions, equitable adjustments, geotechnical, and Miller Act claims. On the transactional side, he has assisted clients with the selection of project delivery systems and front end document drafting. Tom has served as counsel to public agencies for sewer, flood control and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' projects.

Tom is also a principal construction consultant in Project Management Consultants. He has mediated dozens of construction disputes (with a success rate greater than 90%) involving millions of dollars of claims. The issues have ranged from site condition disputes to construction defects, MEP / architect E&O issues, surety disputes, acceleration, compression, delay, and stacking claims. Tom has formal mediator training with the CPR Institute For Dispute Resolution (1996) and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Center for Resolution of Disputes.

Through PMC, Tom has provided field level consulting to more than 450 projects with budgets totaling more than $6 billion. Tom was hired to facilitate public / private, Ohio / Kentucky "STRIVE" educational initiative's systems engineering team in its development of processes to apply Six Sigma to educational delivery in the region. For nearly a decade, he has facilitated construction workshops with more than three hundred project teams, teaching best practices in:

• trade contractor partnering and problem resolution plans;
• architect and construction manager team communication;
• RFI and change order processes;
• budget and program management;
• owner organizational systems for managing large projects;
• executive planning for major project budget issues;
• scheduling and job progress strategies;
• project commissioning
• project close out;
• issue recognition and resolution; and
• project strategic planning.

Tom pioneered for the Ohio School Facilities Commission a unique program that focuses project participants on the nuts and bolts of project commissioning and close out, teaching best practices in managing trade contractor close out, punch listing sequences, retainage issues, attic stock turnover, project records, training, guarantee and warranty, maintenance planning, and final project accounting.

• American Bar Association, Forum on Construction Industry; Litigation Section
• Ohio State Bar Association
• Kentucky Bar Association
• Northern Kentucky Bar Association
• Cincinnati Bar Association

• Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center ($20m) - Claims consultation
• Cincinnati State Technical College ($42m, DAS)--Trade partnering workshops
• Edison Community College ($7m) - Trade partnering workshops
• Kenton County (Ky.) Detention Center ($40m) - Facilitate executive team alignment
• Kings Local School District ($12m, non-OSFC) - Trade partnering workshops
• Lakota Schools (non-OSFC) - Facilitate special issues meetings
• Little Miami School District ($65m, non-OSFC) - Trade partnering workshops
• Madeira City Schools ($28m, non-OSFC) - Executive and trade partnering
• Northern Kentucky University Bank One Arena ($65m) - Facilitate design team alignment
• Northridge Schools (non-OSFC) - Mediation
• ODOT Harrison County Garage ($6m, DAS) - Trade partnering workshops
• State of Ohio School Building Program
• Sugarcreek Schools (non-OSFC) - Partnering and mediation
• Summit Behavioral Institute ($40m, DAS) - Trade partnering workshops
• Sycamore Community Schools – Mediations

• "Owner Claims for Building Code Violations", Ohio Code News, March/April 2006
• "Partnering Can Resolve Construction Conflicts", Cincinnati Business Courier, 2004
• “Private Mediation Can Save Time and Money”, Cincinnati Business Courier, 1997
• “Records Retention & The Ten Year Statute”, The Cincinnati Constructor, 1994

• "Calculus of Risk"; Cincinnati Chapter AIA; February 2006
• "Regional Development: Land Mines and Gold Mines"; Thompson Hine Roundtable Series; October 2005
• "Partnering Contractor Claims: A Track Record Second to None"; Ohio BASA; May 2004
• "Construction Partnering"; 9th Biennial Midwest/Midsouth Construction Law Institute; January 2003
• “Project Close Out”; Ohio Builds symposium; 2002
• “Can this Project be Saved? Delay Damages and Differing Site Conditions”; Cleveland Construction Contracting Community; 1998-2001
• “Construction Law”; Cincinnati Bar Association; 2000
• “Designer-Led Design Build Project Delivery”; Cincinnati Large A-E Firms; 1999
• "Risk Management"; Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati; 1998
• “The Cost Effective Solution of Dispute Resolution”; Allied Construction Industries