Thomas O Crist

Practice Areas

Tom Crist chairs Benesch’s Global Infrastructure Team and Construction Law Practice and leads the firm’s Middle East and Federal Contracting Specialty groups. The overlapping specialties share an emphasis on innovation and delivery of essential services to established and developing locales, including those in the energy, chemical, natural resources, transportation, high tech manufacturing, healthcare, and infrastructure sectors. Tom has spent most of his career as a trusted advisor, problem solver, and advocacy partner at an Am Law 200 firm and is sought after as a first chair trial lawyer and thought leader in international disputes. Tom is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) and a Qualified Arbitrator in Canada. He is admitted to prestigious ADR rosters in the U.S., UK, Canada, UAE, KSA and the British Virgin Islands, among others before whom he acts as decision maker or advocate.

Tom advises stakeholders and public and closely held company leadership in their planning and execution of a broad range of major projects and initiatives. He lends leadership on site to projects that encounter implementation and technical challenges, and which often utilize dynamic controls such as BIM, AI, robotic and autonomous systems, proprietary analytics, and other tools that are on the leading edge in the AEC space. Tom is additive to client teams and assists in spotting issues and managing risk. He helps jumpstart or “fix and finish” projects while preserving claims, defenses, and profit margins. A field operator and trial lawyer by training, Tom concludes disputes before tribunals, courts, and boards when they cannot or should not be avoided.

Many client projects are of daunting size and scope and include heavy civil/infrastructure, manufacturing, water/wastewater, solar, tunnels, ports, roads and bridges, fossil fuel, renewable energy, transmission and distribution, high-tech, aerospace, chemical, precision agriculture, mining, pharma, towers, modular and complex mechanical systems, and lesser-tested technologies.

Professional Memberships

• Member, NYSBA International Outreach Committee; Dispute Avoidance Committee

• Chair, NYSBA Construction Subcommittee

• American Bar Association, Member, Forum on the Construction Industry; ADR Committee

• International Bar Association; International Construction Projects Committee; Energy, Environment, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure Law Section.

• Construction Managers Association of America (CMAA); Legal Affairs Committee

• Society of Construction Law (SCL); North American Founding Member; Great Lakes Regional Director

• Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), Fellow, North American Board Member, Ohio/Pennsylvania Chapter Chair, Global Peer Review Committee

• Member, The Toronto Commercial Arbitrator Society (TCAS); Q.Arb. Designation

Education