Howard W. Ashcraft Jr.

Howard has represented owners, designers and contractors in major construction litigation. He is particularly skilled at developing targeted litigation strategies that break down complex concepts into themes that resonate with arbitrators, judges and juries.

He is also actively involved in developing new approaches to construction project delivery that will avoid many of the issues seen in problem projects. Along with other members of the AIACC's interdisciplinary taskforce on Integrated Project Delivery, he developed the theoretical and practical underpinnings for Integrated Project Delivery. These were first stated in AIACC's Integrated Project Delivery: A Working Definition (updated 2014) and the joint AIA/AIACC Integrated Project Delivery: A Guide, both of which he co-authored. He also was a principal co-author of Integrating Project Delivery (Wiley 2017) and the recently released IPD: An Action Guide for Leaders (Pankow 2018) and numerous other papers, articles and book chapters. He has a practical understanding of IPD as well. Along with the Hanson Bridgett IPD team, he has structured over 140 pure IPD projects—most of which also used Lean methodologies. According to Chambers USA, Howard is Band 1 rated and “has a solid practice representing design professionals and public owners. Like the firm, he is especially praised for his knowledge of IPD-related work. Clients say: He is a very clear-headed attorney who is the country's leading authority on alternative project delivery models in construction."

In parallel, Howard worked with the congressionally-chartered National Institute of Building Sciences to develop the National Building Information Modeling Standard. He currently heads the institute's legal and risk sub-group. Building Information Modeling is the use of object-oriented, intelligent databases that not only can use 3D design tools to characterize existing architectural and engineering design, but can be used to explore and manage construction processes, energy optimization, sustainable construction, costs and facility management.

Howard is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University in Civil and Environmental Engineering.