Joseph W. Cooch

Design professionals who proactively address challenges get the best results for their clients. Joe applies a proactive approach to representation and keeps designers a step ahead of their risks.

Joe knows the business of design professionals. His practice has included representation of every type of party to a construction project’s web of contracts, which enables him to evaluate legal issues from every perspective. This breadth of experience also drives Joe’s passion for representing designers, who face a unique set of challenges and risks.

This experience helps Joe anticipate and mitigate his client’s risks at all phases of a project, from submission of proposals and contract negotiation, to managing challenges in the design phase, and advising clients during troubled projects to avoid litigation. When disputes do ripen into claims and litigation, Joe uses his detailed knowledge of construction contracts and project documentation to investigate the true cause of losses and defend his clients. Joe has successfully litigated construction disputes throughout Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia through both trial and appeals. Most recently, Joe obtained a defense verdict in a $25 million wrongful death suit against a civil / structural engineering firm.

Joe is actively engaged with Virginia’s design and construction community, and was recently identified by the Virginia Business Journal as a “Legal Elite” in the field of construction law. Joe is the author of a chapter of the Virginia Construction Law Deskbook on Sustainable Design and Construction and regularly shares his legal insights with the community of design professionals through speaking engagements and publications.