2026 Innovation Summit: “Contracting Strategies that Actually Reduce Risk”

10:15-11:15 Contracting Strategies That Actually Reduce Risk

Strong contracts start with clear expectations and realistic risk allocation. This session explores how contracting decisions made during preconstruction can clarify responsibilities, address uncertainty, and reduce disputes. Learn practical approaches to aligning project partners and managing cost, schedule, and scope risks before construction begins.

Moderator: Nicholas Dube, Preti Flaherty

Nicholas is a member of the firm’s Litigation and Construction Law Groups, practicing from the Concord, New Hampshire and Boston, Massachusetts, offices. He advises executives, multinational corporations, and large-scale institutions in the financial services, consumer goods, and pharmaceutical sectors on a wide range of litigation matters. His experience includes complex commercial litigation, risk assessment and internal investigations, contracts and securities issues, professional liability defense, antitrust and anti-corruption laws, and constitutional law.

Nicholas is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where he served as executive editor of the Harvard Law Review, and Harvard College. While in law school, Nicholas served as a legal intern at the National Courts Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC. Following law school, he was a clerk for the Hon. Danny J. Boggs at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Prior to joining Preti Flaherty, Nicholas was a litigation associate at a preeminent global law firm in their Boston office.

Nicholas grew up in New Hampshire and currently resides there.

Panelists:

Christy Murphy, Managing Director, Project Advisory, Vertex

Christy has 27 years of experience in the construction industry with extensive institutional and healthcare project portfolios as well as experience managing large, complex multi-use development projects. She has a sophisticated knowledge of planning, design and construction that allows her to apply best practices to each assignment, while at the same time, customize the processes and deliverables to meet unique client needs and expectations. Christy’s leadership and particiaption ensures senior-level leadership in all phases of a specific assignment but especially in planning of deliverables by our team.

Christy brings best practices and extensive experience from other institutional projects that require a specific permitting process including Article 80, ongoing external community engagement and a high level of internal constituent engagement. Clients appreciate her experience from 17 years as a builder and  a decade as owner’s project manager, bringing technical expertise as well as well as vetted project management processes to her role as trusted advisor. As a team leader, she fosters an environment of teamwork and ensures that strategy is clearly defined while overseeing performance and maintaining team morale. Her strong communication and client service skills enhance VERTEX’s process-driven management philosophy. As a long time member of the Plymouth School Building Committee (2008-2020), Christy developed a very direct appreciation for successful project delivery from an owner’s point of view which she brings to every project.

Christy is a recognized leader and proponent of diverse voices in the construction industry. She is committed to teaching and mentoring others through the AGC of Massachusetts Emerging Leaders Program and the BWiC Executive Committee, and was recognized by the AGC in 2026 with the “Mentor of the Year” award. Christy is a regular guest speaker at industry programs like the AGC of MA’s “Casual Conversations with Powerful Women in Construction”. She is a co-moderator of the AGC of MA/BWiC  ‘Behind the Façade’ podcast. Christy presented at the 2025 Society of College and University Planners Northeast Regional Conference along with executives from Boston University, UMass Building Authority and Bunker Hill Community College. The panel discussion was entitled “P3 Strategies to Deliver on Community Engagement”.

Additional Panelists TBA