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Adams and Reese Partner and Construction Team Co-Leader Trent Cotney is interviewed in “How to Be Legally Prepared for Trump 2.0,” which was originally published in Construction Dive and picked up by Yahoo Finance.
The new Trump administration has announced a slew of changes that will impact the construction industry, including effects on labor, materials, prices, permitting, and project funding, such as foreign tariffs that may take effect on China, Mexico, and Canada.
Cotney said while many construction materials are already produced domestically, their underlying components often come from overseas.
“The raw materials that are used to make those materials are sourced elsewhere,” Cotney said. “I’m concerned the cost of materials will skyrocket again.”
Cotney added that similarly to the actions contractors took to navigate supply chain snarls and material scarcity during the pandemic, they should take pre-emptive action now to protect themselves, including in their contracts with owners. “I'm reminding every contractor, make sure you have a price acceleration provision in your contract,” Cotney said. “If for some reason these tariffs unintentionally raise prices dramatically, you need to be protected so you can pass those costs on to your customer.”
Trump also signed executive orders to crack down on illegal immigration, and an estimated 20 percent of construction workers lack permanent legal status in the U.S., according to industry estimates.
Cotney said changes to immigration policy under Trump could hit at the core of construction’s workforce. “Immigration issues concern me, because our industry is built off the backs of immigrant labor,” Cotney said. “To deny that is to not understand the reality. … It’s hard to go to a customer and say, ‘Well, the labor I was going to use left, because they're illegal.”
Cotney said that contractors may need to expand their subcontractor pool to include more established firms, which in turn could cause labor rates to increase further, a factor that should be considered in the contract as well. “You’re going to have to hire ‘real’ subcontractors,” Cotney said. “And with ‘real’ subcontractors, you’ve got heavier overhead. So, it’s going to cause labor rates to go up.”
At Adams and Reese, Cotney is a leading member of one of the largest construction practices in the country with more than 90 attorneys licensed to practice law across more than 30 states. A Partner in the Adams and Reese Tampa office, Cotney represents construction and infrastructure clients, including GCs, subcontractors, suppliers, manufacturers, architects, engineers, roofers, developers, and other professionals. Cotney is a board-certified construction lawyer licensed in eight states and Washington, DC. Cotney is an EU arbitrator for construction-related disputes. He is also experienced in construction litigation and arbitration, including OSHA defense, lien law, bond law, bid protests, and construction document review and drafting.