His process begins with diagnosing the specific problem his client faces and determining whether a construction or water lawyer (or a corporate, bankruptcy, or other specialist) is really what’s needed. He then evaluates what he calls a “win condition”—what success would be, what kind of return it would provide, and how that compares to the costs, both financial and managerial, of any potential alternative. Will places great analytical emphasis on possible legal outcomes and avoids substituting his own business thinking for his clients’.
On the construction side, Will is a jack of all trades in a highly specialized field. He brings to his work an unusually broad range of both clients (owners, general contractors, and design professionals) and industry insight (insurance defense, payment disputes, project closeout, lien claims, and professional ethics). His construction industry focus is augmented by an insatiable scholarly drive—Will has written over a dozen papers on construction-related topics, including risk allocation strategies and claims, the Economic Loss Rule, statutes of limitations, and consequential damages, among others. He has spoken several times at the State Bar of Texas’s annual Construction Law Conference, and he teaches Construction Litigation at the University of Texas School of Law.
In addition to his construction practice, Will also advises rural water districts in conflicts over the design, construction, and development of infrastructure within their service areas. Specifically, Will represents water supply corporations and special utility districts seeking to preserve the integrity of their state law service territory (through their certificates of convenience and necessity), and their federal law territorial rights (through a federal lending program administered under 7 U.S.C. § 1926). Will represents rural water districts in all forums affecting their service territories, including in administrative proceedings before the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and in state and federal litigation. As part of that practice, Will also advises rural water districts in interacting with developers, contractors, and designers related to water infrastructure development, and best practices for protecting their service territories from encroachment.
Will is an avid fan of ice-cold Coors Lights, bad movies, and Texas Tech sports, but these days you’ll mostly find him spending time with his wife, Anne, while trying to keep up with their two children.
