James P. Carney

Jim Carney concentrates his practice on construction litigation and government contracts. He has significant experience litigating large, complex construction matters as well as drafting and reviewing construction contracts, analyzing claims, and closing out projects.

Jim has represented clients in state and federal court and in domestic and international arbitrations. He has represented suppliers, subcontractors, general contractors, designers, and public and private owners on a wide range of projects, including commercial, federal, airport, road, residential, hotel and resort, hospital and research facility, and power and utility projects.

He has been selected to the Washington, D.C., Rising Stars list in construction litigation and is a member of the ABA Forum on Construction Law.

• Represented a material supplier in its nearly $1 million mechanic's lien action arising out of the construction of a casino hotel in Maryland.
• Represented a general contractor against more than $2 million in subcontractor claims, including claims for lost productivity and delay on a public project in Virginia, and advanced general contractor's counterclaims of more than $1 million related to delay and defective work.
• Defended a design-build contractor from more than $50 million in claims by a subcontractor arising out of the construction of a 101-kilometer road in Afghanistan. The two-and-a-half-year international arbitration involved many aspects of horizontal design and construction, issues related to construction management and claims processing, as well as delay and modified total-cost claims.
• Defended a general contractor against claims from multiple subcontractors (totaling more than $30 million) arising out of the construction of a $500 million state-of-the-art biocontainment laboratory and research facility.
• Represented a general contractor advancing more than $10 million in claims, including delay and cumulative-impact claims, against the U.S. government, arising out of the construction of a U.S. Embassy.
• Represented a general contractor advancing more than $11 million in claims arising out of the construction of a publicly owned hospital in the Bahamas.
• Represented a number of subcontractors on claims arising out of the construction of a $3.5 billion resort in the Bahamas.
• Defended a public owner against more than $10 million in subcontractor claims arising out of the construction of an airport runway extension.

• Washington, D.C., Rising Stars, Construction Litigation, Super Lawyers Magazine (2020–2021)

• American Bar Association
  • Forum on Construction Law
• Maryland State Bar Association
• Washington Building Congress

• "Contract Pitfalls," 2023 eSub Build Smarter ESummit (November 9, 2023)
• “Lessons Learned: A Construction Lawyer’s Perspective,” Billd Subcontractor Meetup (2022)
• "Construction Claims and Change Order Management: Claim Preservation, Documentation, and Contract Interpretation," WPL Publishing Co. Four-Part Training Program on Construction Claims (2020)
• "Identification and Notification of Claims: Overcoming the First Obstacles to Successful Recovery," The Florida Bar Construction Law Committee (2019)
• "Identification and Notification of Construction Claims: Keys to Success," WPL Publishing Co.'s Online Course on Management of Construction Claims & Change Orders (2017–2019)

• Partner, McManus & Felsen LLP, Washington, D.C.