Construction & Contracting
James “Jim” DiChristofano:
Every Seat at the Table
Owners. Developers. Generals. Subs. Suppliers.
DiChristofano & Associates LLC represents every position on a construction project, from the owner who signs the first check to the supplier waiting on the last one. Small companies and large ones. Attorney James “Jim” DiChristofano has argued both sides of nearly every fight this industry produces.
Knowing what the other side will do
A lawyer who only represents general contractors learns one script. He knows how a GC talks about a delay, what a GC does with a change order request, and where a GC's money is really going. What he does not know, because nobody ever paid him to find out, is what the sub across the table has already decided before the meeting started.
Jim DiChristofano has sat in that chair too. He has recorded liens and he has fought to defeat them. He has drafted the subcontract and he has picked one apart. He has demanded payment on behalf of a supplier and he has explained to an owner exactly why the demand was premature. The result is not neutrality. It is knowing, before the other side moves, what the move is going to be and what it is worth.
That perspective is the reason the firm's construction clients range from single-trade contractors to companies working on public projects across Cook County and the collar counties.
Who the firm represents
Where you sit changes what the case is
Owners & developers
Defending against liens and lien foreclosure, contesting extras and change order claims, pursuing defective and non-conforming work, enforcing schedule and completion obligations, negotiating construction and design agreements, and resolving disputes without stalling a project or a closing.
General contractors
Prime contract negotiation, subcontract drafting and enforcement, flow-down and pay-if-paid provisions, delay and acceleration claims, backcharges, defense of sub and supplier lien claims, and collection from owners who have decided that slow payment is a negotiating strategy.
Subcontractors & trades
Perfecting and enforcing mechanic's liens, notice requirements and the deadlines that quietly extinguish a claim, retainage recovery, extra work and out-of-scope claims, defending against backcharges and termination for cause, and the payment fights that decide whether a season was profitable.
Suppliers & material providers
Credit applications and personal guaranties, lien rights for material furnished, joint check agreements, notices to owner, collections and enforcement, bond claims where applicable, and the unglamorous work of getting paid for goods that are already installed and cannot be taken back.
Three ways it goes wrong
Money, paper, and time
Money. Payment on a construction project moves down a chain, and every party in that chain has a reason to hold it one more week. A lien is leverage. So is a backcharge, a termination notice, and a refusal to sign a final waiver. The question is rarely who is right in the abstract. It is who is positioned to make waiting expensive for the other side.
Paper. Most construction disputes are decided by documents nobody read closely when they were signed. A flow-down clause. A notice provision. A waiver of consequential damages. A definition of substantial completion that does not mean what the parties assumed. The contract is drafted in an afternoon and litigated for two years.
Time. Illinois construction law is unforgiving about deadlines. Notices must be served within a period, liens recorded within a period, and suits filed within a period. Miss one and the strongest claim on the project becomes an unsecured debt. Contractors lose more money to calendars than to arguments.
What the firm actually does about it
Contracts are drafted so that the party holding them has options when the project turns. Lien and notice deadlines are calendared before they become emergencies. Disputes are evaluated for what they are worth against what they will cost, and the ones worth pursuing are pursued to a resolution rather than a stalemate. When a matter has to be tried or appealed, it is handled by the same lawyer who has been on it from the start.
Construction claims and defenses are governed by statutory deadlines and notice requirements that vary with the type of project and the party asserting the claim. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and prior matters do not guarantee or predict future outcomes.
Public and certified work
Certified enterprises on construction projects
Public construction work carries participation goals, and goal-bearing subcontracts come with obligations that ordinary subcontracts do not. The firm forms and certifies MBE, WBE, DBE, and VBE companies, and represents both the certified firms and the primes who contract with them.
When property is the fight
Liens, mortgages, and priority
Construction disputes have a way of becoming real estate disputes. A lien becomes a foreclosure, a foreclosure becomes a priority contest, and a priority contest becomes an appeal. The firm handles that entire progression.
Owed money on a project, or being asked to pay it?
Tell the firm where you sit on the project and what happened. Please leave out confidential or time-sensitive information until representation is confirmed in writing.
Contact the firmThis page describes the types of matters DiChristofano & Associates LLC handles. It is not a promise of any particular result, and it does not state or imply certification as a specialist in any field of law. The firm does not represent opposing parties in the same matter.