Engineering Construction Specifications: The Road to Better Quality, Lower Cost, Reduced Litigation

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For the past 25 years, Joe Goldbloom and I have conducted a running debate over whether specifications writers engage in the unlawful practice of law. Joe’s position is that lawyers have no business writing specifications, that being the designer’s province. Having been given the honor to write this foreword, I have the opportunity for the last word, at least for now. Joe Goldbloom and I first met in 1964, while serving together on the ASCE Committee on Contract Administration. Joe became my teacher, mentor, and friend. Underlying our good natured debate was the serious issue of the technical qualifications required of a specifications writer. As a matter of fact, specifi cations writing traditionally has fallen in a crack between the two professions. Specifications writing typically is neither taught in engineering school nor in law school. Engineers are taught how to design; lawyers are taught how to draft contracts. Specifications writing requires mastery of the technical elements of design as well as the skills of contract drafting. Specifications writing is neither glamorous nor sexy; it is often viewed as a necessary evil of the designer’s job.