Attorney Profiles

Mr. McAlpine has been acknowledged as one of the best construction lawyers in America by the publication The Best Lawyers in America, which selects its honorees based on an exhaustive and rigorous peer-review survey and is considered the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States. Mr. McAlpine is the founding principal of the firm of McAlpine & Associates, P.C., an 8 lawyer construction and real estate firm located in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The Firm practices nationally and internationally, has developed a stellar reputation as one of the leading construction firms in the United States, and has recently been recognized by the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers.

Mr. McAlpine has extensive experience in numerous areas of commercial and business dispute resolution. His primary focus is construction law and related matters, including business formation, transactions, contract formation, real estate and development, negotiation, employment law and dispute resolution. He has had substantial experience representing local, national and international owners, developers, lenders, general contractors, construction managers, subcontractors, suppliers, consultants, design professionals, insurers and bonding companies in connection with both public and private projects. He has specific experience with public mass transportation, waste water treatment facilities, environmental remediation projects, airports, elevated light rail mass transportation, nuclear and fossil fuel power plants, automobile parts and assembly plants, high rise office buildings, hospitals and research facilities, warehouses, robotic systems, hotels, commercial residential apartment and condominium complexes, renovations, underground pipeline installations, parking structures, commercial retail developments, oil change facilities, industrial construction and petrochemical facilities.

As a trial lawyer, Mr. McAlpine has obtained some of the largest jury verdicts in the United States and in Michigan in various complex jury trials and arbitrations. He has tried construction cases throughout the United States, including handling significant matters in the state and federal trial courts of most states, including California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Missouri, New England, Ohio, Georgia, Tennessee, Washington, South Dakota, Virginia and Louisiana. He also has extensive experience in the appellate courts of many states and federal circuits.

Mr. McAlpine is also actively involved with various local and national construction industry groups including The Associated General Contractors of America (member of the insurance, contract documents, project delivery systems, federal procurement, airports and subcontractor relations committees) and serves as the Vice Chair of the Contract Documents Committee’s Subcommittee of the Engineers Joint Contract Document Committee and represents the AGC in negotiations with respect to national standard construction and design contracts. He is also involved in and a frequent lecturer for the American Public Works Association, the American Water Works Association and the National Society of Professional Engineers. He has also lectured to the Florida Underground Contractors Association, the North Carolina Chapter of the National Society of Professional Engineers and many others on issues dealing with proper risk allocation in construction contracts and alternative dispute resolution. He regularly teaches construction law courses for various industry and trade organizations such as the Construction Association of Michigan and is a member of the adjunct law faculty at the Wayne State University School of Law, teaching Contract and Construction Law.

He is actively involved in the Forum on the Construction Industry and the Public Contracting and Litigation Sections of the American Bar Association. He is a member of the Construction and Construction Liens Committee of the Real Property Section of the State Bar of Michigan. Mr. McAlpine frequently publishes and lectures locally and nationally on a full range of construction law topics. He is the principal author of Michigan Construction Liens (ICLE) which has been cited by the Michigan Supreme Court as the leading authority on the Michigan Construction Lien Act (Vugterveen Systems, Inc. v. Olde Millpond Corp., 454 Mich. 119 (1997)).

Mr. McAlpine’s involvement in alternative dispute resolution is extensive. He is a past Chairperson of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the State Bar of Michigan where he continues to be involved as a member of the Section Council in evaluating and developing new and innovative ways of avoiding litigation and resolving commercial disputes in a cost-effective and efficient manner while also preserving or restoring business relationships. He is also active in the ABA’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Section and is the former Chairperson of the ADR Ethics Subcommittee of the Professional and Judicial Ethics Committee of the State Bar of Michigan. He also serves as a mediator and arbitrator and is a member of the American Arbitration Association’s National Panel of Construction Arbitrators.

Mr. McAlpine serves as the Chairperson of the American Arbitration Association's Regional Council on Large and Complex Cases and is a member of the American Arbitration Association’s National Large and Complex Cases Panel of Arbitrators. He lectures and publishes frequently on a wide range of ADR topics. At the request of the Michigan Supreme Court, Mr. McAlpine has served on the teaching faculty of the Michigan Judicial Institute where he has delivered seminars to judges throughout Michigan on the use of ADR in the courts.

In addition to an extensive construction law practice, Mr. McAlpine has experience in a wide range of general business and commercial matters, including business entity formation, sales and mergers of companies, the development of corporate and business strategies, aviation law and in evaluating and assisting in the negotiation and resolution of contract based disputes. He also has extensive experience in resolving and monitoring insurance claims, employment matters, shareholder disputes, partnership dissolutions, franchise issues, banking transactions and computer contracting.

Mr. McAlpine’s civil litigation practice includes general civil litigation and arbitration involving aviation law, securities, franchise matters, contract disputes, employment issues, transportation, computer, intellectual properties and accounting and consulting malpractice.

He is a past member of the Civil Procedure and U. S. Court Committees of the State Bar of Michigan and a current member of the ABA’s Litigation Section. He publishes and frequently lectures on a wide range of civil procedure and trial practice issues.

Mr. McAlpine is also active in the State Bar of Michigan where he has served as Chairperson and a member of the Michigan Bar Journal Advisory Board and is a past member of the Professional and Judicial Ethics Committee and Representative Assembly where he chaired the Assembly Review Committee. While at the Detroit College of Law (now the Michigan State University School of Law), Mr. McAlpine was the recipient of numerous academic awards and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Detroit College of Law Review. He is a past member of the DCL Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Mr. McAlpine is a former senior partner in the Detroit law firm of Clark, Klein & Beaumont, P.L.C. (now Clark Hill, L.L.C). He is admitted to practice in numerous Federal District and Circuit Courts of Appeal and the U. S. Federal Claims Court. In addition to various national acknowledgments of his expertise as a construction lawyer, Mr. McAlpine has also received an “AV” rating by the Peer Review Rating Services of LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell which defines an AV rating as “a testament to the fact that a lawyer's peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence”.