Construction & Building Materials

JMBM has a dominant position among California law firms in the building materials industry. We advise materials suppliers (including sand, gravel and cement companies) and manufacturers, as well as contractors and other industry players on their integrated corporate, regulatory and dispute-resolution issues. Our lawyers bring their contract, transaction and financing experience to each client project, and work in collaboration with lawyers from the firm’s practices in tax, litigation, regulatory and many other areas. If you are involved in the building materials industry, expect seamless service to meet any need.

Few California law firms can match JMBM’s representation of mining and natural resource companies in environmental matters. Our clients include rock, sand and gravel quarry operations, aggregate mining companies, and producers of cement and ready-mix concrete. We advise them on compliance with all relevant environmental laws—from the Endangered Species Act to the Clean Air and Water Acts. Working closely with the firm’s real estate, environmental and land use lawyers, our team also helps clients negotiate approvals with land use and environmental authorities for reclamation of mining properties, including the creation of California’s first joint powers authority for quarry reclamation.

We provide building material clients with an exceptional combination of regulatory, business and litigation experience, applied to a full range of permitting and compliance issues. This not only includes environmental compliance, but also a variety of taxation, zoning and economic-development issues that require negotiation with state and federal agencies. The results of such negotiation can often extend the life of an aggregates or quarrying operation by 30 to 40 years.

We regularly assist building materials companies that have construction operations, particularly those focusing on public highway infrastructure. This experience allows us to provide expert advice on such issues as public contract bids and compliance. We negotiate on behalf of these clients with the California Department of Transportation on everything from project contracting to the regulations that govern ready-mix cement trucks. No matter what your regulatory need, we will represent your interests before administrative agencies throughout the complete permitting and compliance process.

One of our most specialized areas of counsel to the building materials industry is on property reclamation. We have a special focus on properties involved in rock, sand and gravel quarry operations, and aggregate mining. Our work in this area is not typical environmental remediation and cleanup. Rather, it is transaction-oriented, and aimed at positioning properties for useful second lives once their original production activity is complete. If you own such land, you can rely on our help with everything from securing permits and approvals to identifying sources of public and private development financing.