Benjamin T. Jones 

Over the last several years, Benjamin T. Jones has refocused his practice from large international commercial and investor arbitrations on to arbitrations and litigation over major infrastructure construction matters. “And I would say that my market timing was exactly right because I happened to get involved in a significant number of large-scale disputes,” he said.

For instance, he was part of the team that in June obtained a historic $1.9 billion construction arbitration award for Colombia’s state-owned oil refinery, Reficar. The six-week-long ICC arbitration dealt with a claim for cost reimbursement from the construction of a state-of-the-art refinery in that country. “It’s one of the largest awards ever rendered in a construction case,” Jones said. Refinería de Cartagena S.A.S. v. Chicago Bridge & Iron Company NV 21747/RD/MK/PDP (I.C.C., arb requested March 8, 2016).

He said the team succeeded by showing that the construction company had been grossly negligent. Jones focused on preparing the quantum, or damages, expert and cross-examining the other side’s expert. “The damages were particularly subject to scrutiny,” he said, to show that some costs were unreasonable or unnecessary.

The cross-examination was also unusually tricky because three experts together in the same room were cross-examined over Zoom simultaneously. “It was a free-for-all,” he said.

In other international matters, he represents an East Asian joint venture in a dispute with a construction company building a desalination plant in South America and an Asian engineering company in a multibillion-dollar dispute about a clean energy project in Southeast Asia. Previously, he successfully defended a U.S. company’s Indonesian subsidiary against a half-dozen environmental litigation proceedings in Jakarta, and he won a $600 million award for a UAE petroleum company against the National Iranian Oil Co. in an arbitration in the Hague.

In U.S. matters, he is the lead counsel for day-to-day activities representing the owner of two multibillion-dollar petrochemical production facilities in South Texas in arbitrations to collect more than $500 million from its construction company. He has the same role in an ongoing AAA arbitration representing two Texas wind farm projects against their operation and maintenance provider.

These days, there is high demand for new types of energy facilities, Jones noted. “A majority of my practice is oriented towards the development of … energy infrastructure, a need that is only going to grow with time.”

In addition, he also is focusing on the growth in building advanced manufacturing facilities here in the U.S. For instance, he currently serves as project counsel for two international engineering and construction companies that are building a $27 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility.

As project counsel, Jones said he “attempts to put structure and guardrails and overall strategy around” the inevitable disputes that arise in such mega-projects. “We anticipate continuing to grow this area of our practice.”

—Don DeBenedictis