Lawrence M Prosen

Practice Areas

Lawrence “Larry” M. Prosen is a shareholder in Cozen O’Connor’s Construction Law Group based in its Washington, D.C. and New York City offices and a member of the Firm’s Government Contracts Practice. Larry’s practice crosses paths between traditional construction litigation and advisory services and the unique realm of government contracts.

Holding a BS in Architecture, Larry has litigated and arbitrated cases across the United States and around the world, having been involved in cases in over 35 states and 30 countries, including international arbitrations and claims work. Larry also has extensive experience in all aspects of government contracting, with a special and relatively unique focus on government construction. Over his career, Larry has litigated billions of dollars in disputes on both the private/commercial and public contracting side.

Unlike the vast majority of construction attorneys, Larry’s architecture background gives him a decided edge in both understanding how projects are run and scheduled, and how buildings are designed and constructed. Larry has the ability to understand highly technical theories and issues and distill them into something that is explainable to a trier of fact (judge, jury, arbitrator, or layperson) who does not understand the highly complex nature of construction.

PUBLIC CONSTRUCTION

Larry has represented clients against virtually every government agency on construction and government contracts matters, from construction and contract disputes, to Department of Justice investigations and Small Business Administration matters. Larry’s experience covers virtually all areas of public government contracting, but has a distinct focus on construction. Larry has worked on disputes on virtually every building on the National Mall, from the Supreme Court and US Capitol on the East to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the West end and almost every building from the Smithsonian Institution Castle to the Ariel Rios Building, and most of the memorials on the Mall as well. He has also worked n military, park, VA hospitals and other facilities throughout the United States, coast-to-coast, including litigating them before the Civilian and Armed Services Boards of Contract Appeals and US Court of Federal Claims. Larry has also developed a specialty in dealing with US Consular and Embassy Projects and overseas Military Projects around the World. This includes both disputes with the US Government and also local disputes with subcontractors resulting in international arbitrations held before the AAA ICDR and ICC. These projects are on every continent save Australia, and include the US Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico, the renovation of the US Consulate in Shanghai, China, a $465 million road construction contract in Afghanistan, the construction of a military storage base in Israel, and embassy modernization and renovation projects as far afield as Liberia, Brussel, Paris, and Iraq.

BID PROTESTS

He has extensive experience before the GAO and Court of Federal Claims on bid protests, having represented clients on over 200 bid protests. This experience has resulted in a success rate much higher than the normal rate reported by GAO for cases. In fact, just recently, Larry led the team that managed to reverse the award of a contract valued at upwards of $500 million for the design and development of infrastructure in war-torn Ukraine. In the past, Larry has first chaired numerous successful bid protests, including one involving the award of a multi-hundred million dollar contract for overseas construction services around the world; another involving the provision of worldwide US Navy ship husbanding services, and many others.

DISPUTES

As a result of his wide breadth of experience and technical background, Larry often gets called in to assist in the development and prosecution of claims and contract disputes involving all manner of construction projects. Larry has successfully represented the concrete subcontractor on the development and settlement of a large claim on the Kings Bay Ballistic Nuclear Submarine Drydock located in Kings Bay, Georgia, valued in the high 7 figures. He is also separately involved in disputes representing two subcontractors against another subcontractor on the same project involving claims in excess of $20 million. In the past, Larry has assisted in the development, submission, prosecution, and litigation/settlement of claims valued up to the mid 8 figures and others in excess of $100 million, relating to construction defects, delays, impacts, loss of productivity, change orders and other breaches of contract. Over Larry’s career, he has litigated and assisted in claims valued in the aggregate in the multiple billions of dollars.

COMMERCIAL/PRIVATE CONSTRUCTION

He has also represented contractors, subcontractors, and owners in many disputes on a private basis, including a multi-million dollar multi-party construction dispute in which he represented the owner-developer of a 44-story luxury apartment building against the claims and mechanic’s lien actions brought by the prime contractor and 5 subcontractors valued in the tens of millions of dollars. Larry has experience in claims and disputes involving energy production and transmission, hotel, institutional and petroleum production facilities, river locks and dams, subway, heavy and light rail lines and station construction, hospitals and health care facilities, dry docks/graving yards, as well as office buildings, apartments, condominiums, and multi-family residences, and other types of construction across all sectors. He has also acted as project counsel to owners on a wide array of projects. Larry has arbitrated dozens and mediated well over 100 construction-related disputes, as well as sat as an AAA-certified arbitrator and mediator. Larry has extensive experience in both bench and jury trials, and has tried cases before both state and federal courts, as well as boards of contract appeals. Larry has also given dozens of speeches, including before the national conventions of the AGC, ABC, and CMAA.

NEUTRAL EXPERIENCE:

When he was invited by the American Arbitration Association to join its panel of arbitration neutrals, Larry was one of the youngest construction lawyers ever invited, at the age of only 34. Since that time, Larry has developed a reputation as both an arbitrator and a mediator. In fact, Larry is repeatedly asked to mediate disputes that other neutrals have not been able to successfully resolve. Recently, he successfully mediated a dispute between repair and completion costs incurred by two joint venture partners on a large earthen dam project in the southeast United States. The Project involved costs to repair and augment work caused by erosion and extensive design changes. Following a mediation session, Larry continued to work with the parties to achieve a successful outcome for all parties involved. He has also resolved a significant dispute between a major national prime contractor and concrete subcontractor on a U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis Project, acting as the third mediator in the dispute.

Professional Memberships

Construction Lawyer Society of America, founding fellow.

Jefferson Society, representing Lawyers with Architecture Degrees, fellow.

Law360 Construction Editorial Advisory Board, past invited Member Construction and Government Contracts

District of Columbia Bar Association

Maryland State Bar Association

American Arbitration Association, Construction Panel Neutral for both Arbitration and Mediation

American Arbitration Association, National Construction Dispute Resolution Committee, ABA Section on Litigation Representative

American Arbitration Association, Arbitrator & Mediator Roster of Neutrals for Construction Disputes; Member, Dispute Resolution Board Foundation

American Subcontractors Association, Attorney’s Council, Member

American Bar Association, Forum on Construction Industry, Member

Building for Good, Inc. (B4G), Panel Member

The Builder’s Ball, General Counsel and Member; Organizing Committee, Member

District of Columbia Department of Small and Local Business Development, Member; Construction Industry Advisory Council, Past

Associated Builders and Contractors of Metro Washington, District of Columbia Legislative Committee, Past Chair

Publications

Larry has been widely published with dozens of written articles and numerous book chapters, including the Subcontracting Chapter in the ABA’s 1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions of “Federal Government Construction Contracting” and the Subcontracting Chapter in the Construction Law Handbook, 4th Ed, published by Wolters Kluwer. He also speaks regularly, having spoken at many national conventions, including those of the Associated Builders and Contractors, Associated General Contractors, the Construction Super Conference, and Contract Management Association of America, as well as for the American Subcontractors Association. Larry has been widely quoted in news articles and published in major publications such as Law360 and was recognized by JD Supra with one of its 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards. He has also sat on the government contracts and construction editorial advisory boards for Law360 and has been interviewed by various press outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Law360, and other publishers.

Education