Road Work Ahead! Five Solutions for Repairing the Nation’s Infrastructure

About the Author
Barry B. LePatner

Barry B. LePatner is the founder of the New York City-based law firm LePatner & Associates LLP. For three decades, he has been prominent as an advisor on business and legal issues affecting the real estate, design, and construction industries. He is head of the law firm that has grown to become widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading advisors to corporate and institutional clients, real estate owners, and design professionals.

Mr. LePatner is widely recognized as a thought leader in the construction industry. A November 2007 Governing magazine article stated, “If there’s a guru of construction industry reform, it’s LePatner.” In an article entitled “Building a New WPA,” appearing in the November 24, 2008, issue of New York magazine, he was referred to as “a Cassandra of infrastructure.” And an article on Infrastructurist.com entitled “Trillion-Dollar Barry: One Man’s Quest to Keep America Solvent” states that Mr. LePatner has been hailed as “a leading expert on the construction industry.”

His latest book, Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America’s Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry (The University of Chicago Press), which was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, has created a national debate among owners, designers, and other key stakeholders. Mr. LePatner has been featured in BusinessWeek, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Crain’s New York Business, the Chicago Tribune, and other prestigious publications. His articles and speeches on the perilous state of our nation’s infrastructure have garnered him widespread attention. He has appeared on many television and radio broadcasts, including a CNBC appearance and several National Public Radio segments.

A nationally recognized speaker, Mr. LePatner has addressed audiences on topics central to trends affecting the real estate and construction industry at events throughout the country for audiences including contractors, architects, engineers, construction technology experts, economic experts, and other construction industry thought leaders.

Mr. LePatner has written extensively and is widely quoted in the media on the subject of construction law. He previously co-authored the legal sections of the Interior Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill 2001, and Structural & Foundation Failures: A Casebook for Architects, Engineers & Lawyers, McGraw-Hill1982, with Sidney M. Johnson, P.E. Mr. LePatner is currently writing a new book that takes a look at what needs to be done to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. To be published early in 2010, it will address our decades-old failure to redress our deteriorating roads and bridges and will offer insightful recommendations on how to finance and build this critical part of our nation’s backbone.

In 2007 and 2008 Mr. LePatner was selected as a Super Lawyer by the publisher of Law & Politics magazine.In 2002, Mr. LePatner received an Honorary AIA Membership. He is also currently on the Board of Trustees of the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA). He has also served on numerous advisory committees including: the Advisory Board, Society for Marketing Professional Services; the Board of the New York Building Congress; Board of Advisors, Legal Briefs for the Construction Industry; American Institute of Architects Advisory Committee; and the National Academy of Sciences.

For more information, visit www.brokenbuildings.com.