Rich Reizen Quoted in Corporate Knights Article discussing ‘Acts of God’ and Climate Change

Rich Reizen, Partner and Chair of Gould & Ratner’s Construction Practice was featured in a Corporate Knights article that discusses how climate change is forcing businesses to adapt to the ever changing climate and how to assess ‘Acts of God’ claims in the construction industry.

“You can’t keep calling things hundred-year floods when you have them three years in a row,” points out Richard Reizen, a partner at Gould & Ratner and chair of the firm’s construction practice. “What I find most effective is to sit down, look at where you’re building, and put down a specific number of weather days that you actually put in the contract so that people can adequately plan,” he says. “In California, when there’s a forest fire, you’re not just looking at the fact that it could come on your property,” Reizen says. “The bigger risk is air-quality days where, because of fires, people can’t work outside.”

The article also notes that “lawyers like Reizen have called attention to the intrinsic tension in force majeure provisions…as the direct impacts of climate change add new layers of uncertainty across many sectors, while also opening doors to new opportunities for investments.”

Click here to read the full article.