Biography

Jonathan J. Dunn is the Construction Practices group lead partner in Sedgwick’s Orange County office, and concentrates his practice in construction and complex commercial matters, including real estate, collections, debtor-creditors’ rights and bankruptcy. 

Mr. Dunn has over eighteen years experience in addressing complex legal and factual matters, especially those that arise out of construction disputes and defaults on federal, state (public works) and private construction projects in the United States.  In particular, Mr. Dunn has significant experience in complex construction disputes, including delay, impact, disruption, inefficiency, extra-work, differing site conditions, bid-protests, subcontractor substitutions, and other construction claims. 

Mr. Dunn also has numerous successes in complex commercial and creditor cases, including collections involving fraud, fraudulent transfers, trusts, family limited partnership and other asset-shielding devices, bankruptcy, workouts - pre-bankruptcy and post petition, indemnity, pre-judgment remedies (writs of attachment, restraining orders) and other collection issues. 

Mr. Dunn has successfully represented clients in litigation, trial, arbitration, and mediations, and handles a multitude of complex commercial litigation, construction and bankruptcy matters at any given time.  Prior to his experience at Sedgwick, Mr. Dunn was in-house counsel for two national bonding companies, where he had management responsibilities for various default matters in the Western United States.  Prior to practicing law, Mr. Dunn was an active participant in his family’s construction business. 

Memberships & Honors

Mr. Dunn is a member of the ABA’s Forum on Construction Law; a member of the Legal Advisory Committee for the Associated General Contractors of California; a former vice-chair of the Fidelity and Surety Law Committee of the American Bar Association; a member of the ABA’s Public Contract Law Section, the ABA’s Litigation Section, the Orange County Bar Association (Construction Law and Commercial Law & Bankruptcy Sections), the California Bar Association, the Washington State Bar Association (currently inactive), and several federal court bars.  Mr. Dunn is also a certified mandatory fee arbitration arbitrator for the Orange County Bar Association related to attorneys’ fee disputes. 

Mr. Dunn was named “OC’s Top Lawyers,” Construction & Development, by OC Metro magazine in both 2009 and 2010, and is also listed in Continental Who’s Who.

Litigation & Transactional Matters

Mr. Dunn achieved major victories in numerous transactional, negotiation and litigation matters, including:

• Obtained an exception to discharge judgment in bankruptcy court after a contested trial in the Central District of California in a case involving fraudulent transfers.
• Assisted numerous clients establish entitlement and favorable cost terms for change orders on public, private, and government contracts, including entitlement to extra time, delay damages, omissions and deficiencies in plans and specifications, differing site conditions, conflicting utilities, increased security needs, constructive and other changes, and pursuit of government code claims, administrative claims, and contractual pre-claim requirements.
• Obtained orders for preliminary injunction, temporary restraining orders, writs of attachment, and other prejudgment remedies in collection / recovery litigation matters.
• Successfully argued 9th Circuit case of Contractors Equipment Maintenance Company, Inc., v. Bechtel Hanford, Inc., Slip Copy, 2005 WL 2033307 (unpublished opinion), on challenging the issue of attorneys’ fees awarded in a District Court matter.
• Victorious in appeal against an equipment vendor’s claim against a public work’s payment bond. Pro-Cast Products v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., Ct. App., 4th App. Dist., No. E030462 (un-published opinion), 2002 WL 31484576; 2002 Cal. App. Unpub. Lexis 10291 (Nov. 7, 2002).
• Argued and obtained un-published opinion from United States District Court recognizing a client’s priority in rights to millions of dollars in securities posted in lieu of retention vis a vis competing creditor claims by a contractor’s lender, an issue without prior published precedent (Dec. 2001).
• Enforced creditors’ rights in numerous litigation matters, including state and federal court pre-judgment attachments, collateral orders, temporary restraining orders, and preliminary injunctions, bankruptcy non-dischargeability claims.
• Obtained stipulated entry of order for relief after partial trial of involuntary bankruptcy case, where debtor attempted to sell all assets and flee to Florida to take advantage of Florida’s unlimited homestead exemption. In re Taha, C.D. Cal., Bankr. 2006, case no. SA05-13103 JR.
• Prepared prime contracts, purchase orders, subcontracts, employment / consulting agreements, and numerous other construction and debtor-creditor agreements.
• Successfully negotiated settlement of millions of dollars in change orders, financing, takeover, tender, buy-out, work-out, completion and other agreements on favorable terms for clients in numerous transactional matters.
• Represented clients in American Arbitration Association (AAA) arbitration relating to performance of pipelines, compliance with construction plans and specifications, and mitigation of damages.
• Represented clients in subcontractor substitution hearings in California public works projects, in Department of Labor Standard Enforcement Hearings for alleged prevailing wage violations, and in various administrative and arbitration hearings arising out of construction agreements.

Presentations & Publications

• Mr. Dunn spoke at the 2011 American Bar Association Joint Midwinter Meeting of the Forum on Construction and TIPS Surety & Fidelity Law Committee in New York on the “scope of work,” and also co-wrote a paper entitled “Defining the Remaining Scope of Work in the Surety’s Investigation of a Performance Bond Claim: Hardly Elementary,” published as part of the book entitled “When the Walls Come Tumbling Down: The Critical Construction Issues Facing the Performing Surety.” 

• Mr. Dunn spoke at the Associated General Contractors – Construction Financial Management Association annual meeting in Las Vegas in October 2010, on “Legal Tips on Profits: How to Keep Profits Growing on Green Jobs and Prevent Them from Bleeding Red.”

• Mr. Dunn co-presented and co-authored a paper on the topic of “The New Reality in Getting Paid: Strategies for Managing Receivables from Owners with Thin Wallets,” at the Pearlman Association Meeting in Seattle, Washington (September 2010).

• Mr. Dunn co-presented a webinar for the American Bar Association, Litigation Section, entitled “Are Those Your Fingerprints on the Prints? Litigating Responsibility Over Designs in Approved Shop Drawings as Between the Design and Construction Teams,” in April 2010.

• Mr. Dunn co-authored the article entitled “So You ‘Won’ an ARRA Funded Project, Now What? Five Tips for Making Music with the Strings of ARRA,” published in the AGC’s California Constructor Magazine (April 2010)

• Mr. Dunn spoke in the fall 2009 for the American Bar Association, Forum on the Construction Industry, in its regional education seminar on Schedules and Time Impact Issues; Changes and Differing Site Conditions in construction projects.

• On numerous occasions, Mr. Dunn presented National teleconferences on “The Contractor’s Dilemma of Dealing with Bad Plans and Specifications …” presented through Lorman Educational Services (2008-10).

• On several occasions, Mr. Dunn gave National teleconferences on “The Design Professional’s Exposure for Design Errors and Omissions,” presented through Lorman Educational Services (2008).

• Co-Author, “Letters of Credit in Construction Projects,” Winter 2009 article in The Construction Lawyer.   Mr. Dunn also spoke on this topic at the ABA Forum on Construction Law’s annual meeting in 2008. 

• Speaker at the 2007 Construction Super Conference (San Francisco), session entitled “Remedies for dealing with performance issues during an ongoing construction project – How will the new AIA or Consensus Docs help or hurt?”

• Speaker at the 2006 Construction Super Conference (San Francisco), session entitled “The Construction Project and Claims: Emerging Methods and Technology (Digital Representation, 3-D/4-D Modeling), and the ‘Daubert’ Challenge.” 

• Author and speaker on the construction process in all day seminar entitled “Real Estate Development from Beginning to End in California,” a Lorman Education Services program. 

• Author and speaker, California Government Code Claims against public entities: A Trap for the Unwary (2005), presentation to various clients. 

• Author and speaker, 2006 paper published as part of the Western States Surety Conference, entitled: “Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act: What You Need to Know,” (May 2006).

• Numerous client in-house presentations on various topics, including enforcing creditor rights, pursuing construction related claims, and company compliance with regulations.

• Speaker and co-author, “Mega Claims: Help!, and Case Law Updates,” Western States Surety Conference – Seattle, WA (May 2005) 

• Speaker, Los Angeles County Bar Assciation, Construction subsection of the Real Estate Section, re Current Issues in Surety Law (March 2005)

• Speaker, Aggressive Third-Party Tort Claims Against the Performing Surety, presented at a meeting of the Surety Claims Association of Los Angeles (Nov. 2002).

• Co-Author, “Discovery Sanctions as an Independent Case Strategy:  An Alarming Trend in Litigation,” Tort and Insurance Practice Committee News, Fidelity & Surety Law Committee Newsletter (Winter 2002).

• Co-Author, Ch. 10 of “California Mechanics’ Liens and Related Construction Remedies,” (3d Ed.), on Bond Claim Procedures, Attorney Practice Book published by California’s Continuing Education (CEB) of the Bar (2002 - 2009).

• Author, Ch. 10, Mechanics’ Lien Discharge Bonds, “The Law of Miscellaneous and Commercial Surety Bonds,” Kazlow, Todd C., and King, Bruce C., Editors, American Bar Association (2001).