Focus Areas
Examples of Sarah’s experience include:
International Transactions
- Negotiation and drafting of design professional agreement for a 63,000 square feet mixed-use residential, commercial complex in the United Kingdom.
- Negotiation and drafting of bidding documents, teaming agreement and design professional agreements, and risk mitigation counseling on behalf of an international architect designing a 35-story, mixed-use office tower in Sydney, Australia.
- Negotiation and drafting of architect prime and subconsultant agreements and risk mitigation counseling on bidding, insurance, licensure and scope issues on behalf of an international architect designing a 42-story, 24,400 square meter office, hotel and retail tower in Melbourne, Australia.
- On behalf of a master planner and site developer client, provided front-end risk management advising on licensure, insurance structuring and scope for large-scale site development of a new city in Kuwait.
- Negotiation and drafting of an engineer agreement for a structural engineer designing a private beach villa-complex in Doha, Qatar.
- Negotiation and drafting of an architect agreement on behalf of an international architect designing a 31-story commercial office tower in Manila, Philippines.
- On behalf of an international master planner client, provided front-end risk management advising on licensure, insurance and scope issues and drafting and negotiating of master planner agreements for numerous master planning projects for Vietnamese developer.
- Negotiating and drafting of architect agreement for an international architect designing an interior retrofit of a commercial office building tower in Milan, Italy.
Domestic Transactions
- Negotiation and drafting of design professional agreements on behalf of an architect and structural engineer designing a 1.1 million square-foot, mixed-use hotel, condominium and commercial tower at New York City’s Hudson Yards redevelopment site.
- Risk management advising to a structural engineer and architect clients during the construction administration phase of tower construction at the Hudson Yards redevelopment site.
- Risk management advising to an architect client during the construction administration phase at a train station hub redevelopment project in New York City.
- Negotiation and drafting of a joint venture agreement for a mixed-use, town center development.
- Representation of a design team member in the bidding and design phase on a P3 transportation infrastructure project in Kansas City, KS.
- Representation of a design professional in connection with master planning and master architect services for the site development of a university satellite campus.
- Representation of a design professional client in connection with design of a 450,000 square foot university hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Negotiation and drafting of a design/build agreement for a state-of-the art, state university laboratory building.
- Representation of an owner in connection with the interior renovation of a brownstone in Brooklyn, NY.
- Negotiation and drafting of construction agreements relating to a 45,000 square foot office building.
- Negotiation and drafting of loan subordination agreements in connection with the development of a new commercial office tower.
- Negotiation and drafting of construction access license agreements on behalf of developers and owners of property in New York City, as required per New York City Building Code. Litigation of claims relating to Code-required access agreements.
Claims
- Defended a structural engineer in successful mediation of a $125 million-dollar errors and omissions claim in connection with the design of a $175 million-dollar, public works project.
- Defended an architect of record in connection with successful mediation of a construction delay claim on a large, mixed-use hotel project.
- Defended an architect in a mediation of errors and omissions claim in connection with the design of a laboratory science building.
- Pre-claim risk management advising on variety of project typologies.
Corporate Advising
- Corporate structuring, insurance and corporate compliance advising to an international architect in connection with the opening of new international branches.
- On behalf of engineering and architecture firm’s use of innovative AI and machine-learning based design solutions, advised on the incorporation of a technology start-up, including corporate structuring, intellectual property protection, liability and insurance issues.
- Counsel construction clients on insurance structuring.
- Counsel construction clients on licensure.
- Drafting of corporate policies and procedures on record retention, privacy and website terms of use.
- “Sustaining Curiosity: Sarah Sparer on Working Your Skills and Being Open-Minded,” Madame Architect, February 2019
- “Construction Contracts 101: Demystifying Design and Construction Contracts for Project Success,” Teach Construction Law CLE, Spring 2018-2020
- “Construction Contracts 201: Contracting for the Complex Construction Project,” Teach Construction Law CLE, Fall 2018-2020
Professional Associations
- New York City Bar Association, Chair, Construction Law Committee, 2021-present
Community Activities
- Member, Advisory Board, Madame Architect Digital Publication
- Listed in The Legal 500, Construction, 2022
- Selected to Professional Women in Construction, New York’s “20 Under 40 Outstanding Women in Construction,” 2022
Education
- Brooklyn Law School, J.D., 2012, cum laude
- University of Michigan, B.A., 2008, with honors
Bar Admissions
- New York