Get a direct initial read on the issue.
If this issue matches what you are dealing with, start with a short, non-confidential summary. For qualifying serious matters, contingency may be available once the claim and economics are assessed.
Rescue strategy is about progress
When a project is distressed, the first instinct is usually to get it moving again: stabilize the work, secure the site, fix the immediate problem, preserve financing, keep relationships from collapsing, and figure out how to get to completion.
That is a real need. But it is not the same thing as a claims strategy.
Claims strategy is about leverage and record-building
Claims strategy asks different questions. Who is bearing which risk? What happened first? How is delay being explained? What repair path is being chosen, and how does that affect responsibility, cost, and timeline? What consultant, contractor, or design decisions need to be preserved in the record now instead of explained later from memory?
Those questions do not slow rescue work down. But they often do need their own discipline.
The same people should not always drive both tracks
This is where value can get lost. A project team focused on rescue may make perfectly understandable decisions that later weaken the claim record. A claimant focused only on leverage may miss the practical realities of getting the project stabilized.
That is why it often helps to distinguish the two tracks. One side is trying to get the project moving. The other is making sure the claimant does not pay for that progress by losing claim value it might otherwise preserve.
Delay, sequencing, and repair strategy are not just operational issues
In serious disputes, delay and repair sequencing often become legal-economic issues, not just management issues. They affect cost, leverage, financing pressure, owner communication, and who can credibly argue what later.
The earlier that overlap is recognized, the easier it is to avoid turning an operational fix into a claims problem.
When focused special counsel often makes sense
Focused special counsel often makes sense when project rescue decisions are starting to affect responsibility, sequencing, delay exposure, consultant positioning, or the broader economic record. Special counsel keeps the claim side commercially coherent while the rescue side does the work it needs to do.
Why owners, fiduciaries, and referral counsel call Burnside.
Kelly McCann’s background combines finance training, construction cost-estimating work, legal training, and graduate real-estate study. He has recovered millions of dollars for property owners through trial, arbitration, and settlement.
Illustrative project dispute with defect, delay, and consultant pressure
Completion pressure, repair sequencing, and financing strain all change leverage.
Useful when the claim story needs to stay commercially coherent while the project team is still dealing with the facts on the ground.
The practical inflection point usually arrives before the project record feels complete.
Illustrative scenarios are shown in summary form only. They are not client descriptions and do not guarantee outcomes.