Bio
Jacob is a versatile construction lawyer with extensive experience advising clients across various sectors of the construction industry. His practice primarily focuses on litigation and alternative dispute resolution methods, including mediation, arbitration, and adjudication. In addition, he frequently assists clients with drafting, reviewing, and negotiating construction and design contracts.
Jacob has represented clients in numerous court and arbitral proceedings related to large, multi-disciplinary infrastructure projects, such as underground tunneling, light rail, steelworks, hospital redevelopment, mining, and highway expansion and rehabilitation.
An active participant in leadership organizations, Jacob regularly lectures on topics including construction tendering, contracts, prompt payment, adjudication, and construction delay claims. He also serves on the Executive of the Ontario Bar Association's Construction and Infrastructure Law Section as a Member-at-Large.
Memberships
- Ontario Bar Association, Construction and Infrastructure Law Section, Executive (Member-at-Large)
Representative Work
- Ad hoc arbitration relating to several interrelated highway expansion and bridge building projects located throughout the province of Ontario
- Counsel for a participant in the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Public Inquiry, which investigated the commercial and technical circumstances that led to breakdowns and derailments
- Ad hoc arbitration relating to the manufacture and supply of light rail vehicles to a major public infrastructure project
- Complex multi-party litigation relating to the redevelopment and construction of a new hospital in downtown Toronto
- Ad hoc arbitration in respect of a tunneling project involving a general contractor and municipality
- Counsel for other lawyers in respect of alleged professional negligence in handling of construction law matters
Representative Publications
- “Understanding Notice Holdback" Building Insight - Glaholt Bowles LLP Newsletter, Spring 2024 (Issue 25).
- “Portable Classrooms Are “Improvements” under the Construction Act" Building Insight - Glaholt Bowles LLP Newsletter, Spring 2023 (Issue 22).
- J. McClelland, Building Contracts, in O'Brien's Encyclopedia of Forms, 11th ed., Division I, Commercial and General, Chapter 21 (Thomson Reuters, 2023).
- “A Home Under Renovation is Not Necessarily “Under Construction”: Ontario Court of Appeal" Building Insight - Glaholt Bowles LLP Newsletter, Summer 2021 (Issue 16).
- “Newfoundland Court of Appeal and Ontario Superior of Justice Clarify Scope of Builder’s Risk Insurance Policies” (2019) Canadian College of Construction Lawyers Legal Update, 153.
- Podcast - “Episode 19: COVID-19, Ontario’s Essential Workplaces and the Suspension of Limitation Periods and Procedural Time Periods” Building Insight Podcast, April 17, 2020.
- Podcast - “Episode 14: Adjudication” Building Insight Podcast, October 22, 2020.