by J. Brooks Terry
Special to the Daily Record
Chip Bachara, managing partner of Downtown-based Bachara Construction Law Group, was recently recognized as a top construction attorney in the 2009 edition of the Best Lawyers in America. The publication lists the top 1 percent of attorneys in their respective fields, as voted by their peers.
Bachara, who is Board Certified in Construction Law, was recognized and listed in the area of construction litigation.
“It is a great honor to be chosen and recognized because this is an honor you can’t buy. It has to be earned,” said Bachara, a Jacksonville native with more than 30 years combined construction and legal experience in the area. “There are a lot of challenges to representing parties involved in construction litigation and we enjoy those challenges.”
Challenging, yes, because Bachara said there is much more to construction law than people may realize. Founded in September 2007, Bachara Construction Law Group provides legal representation to public and private owners, developers, design consultants, contractors, construction trades and material suppliers throughout the southeast.
“I’ve represented virtually every party that can be involved in construction-related disputes, from the architect, to the developer and property owner, to the contractor, and even engineering firms,” said Bachara, whose four-attorney firm is located on Independent Square’s 18th floor. “And beyond that, every case we work on is very complex and has the potential to be completely different from the one before it, whether we’re looking at issues related to engineering designs defects, manufacturing, or product installation.
“More recently we’ve seen millions of dollars in bid protest claims coming our way.”
Fortunately, construction litigation — which was all but nonexistent when Bachara was a young attorney in the late 1980s — perfectly suits his background.
“When I was a kid, there was no doubt in my mind that I would become a builder like my dad,” said Bachara, whose father Henry owned and operated Bachara Builders in Jacksonville for a number of years. “I worked with him as a laborer from as young as 14 on different jobs, and while I was an undergrad at Florida I was in a building program they were offering that had some business elements to it.
“I was going to be a builder. That was the plan.”
However, that plan changed for Bachara when the economy took a turn, he said.
“At my parents’ urging, I decided to go to law school, because the economy at that time wasn’t going to be able to support that career,” he said. “I eventually enrolled at Mercer Law, but I still had an interest in building.”
After three years, Bachara had the degree, but felt he “didn’t fully understand the practice of law.”
“I didn’t, but I was very fortunate to have some excellent mentors when I was starting out,” he said of his early experiences at The Bedell Firm. “I really wanted to develop a niche practice with a focus on construction law, and for six years Warren Tripp taught me everything I know. My abilities are based on his teachings.”
More than 20 years into a thriving career, Bachara may not be designing towers or erecting beams, but he is building something as equally important and professionally gratifying: a practice.