Ryan Maloney

Overview

C. Ryan Maloney is a trial and litigation lawyer and Partner at Jimerson Birr, who practices in the areas of construction law, business and contract disputes, government bid protests, real estate disputes, and creditors’ rights, including complex commercial foreclosures, bankruptcy and workouts. Clients look to Mr. Maloney for his excellent legal and practical judgment, and his ability to quickly assess the key issues and develop strategies for consistently obtaining client-focused results within budget.

Mr. Maloney is Board Certified by the Florida Bar in Construction Law and is both Peer and Judiciary Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell’s review rating system. He was also recognized by The Legal 500 in the area of real estate – construction in 2013, 2014, and 2016. Every year since 2020, Mr. Maloney has been recognized by Florida Trend as one of “Florida Legal Elite” a select group of attorney’s representing the top 1.4% of active Florida Bar members practicing in Florida, as selected by peer attorneys.

Mr. Maloney has successfully litigated and arbitrated numerous construction claims and disputes involving issues including delays, disruptions, accelerations, cumulative impacts, changed conditions, mechanic’s liens, payment and performance bonds, licensing, construction defects and design defects, among others. He also has extensive experience drafting and negotiating construction contracts for owners, contractors, subcontractors and design professionals, including negotiating numerous AIA, DBIA and other industry standard contract documents. He recently co-authored a chapter for the annual 2018 Construction Law Update, book published by Wolters Kluwer, entitled “New AIA Contract Documents.” Mr. Maloney’s construction litigation and transactional experience involves a number of different types of projects across the country, including commercial, government, high-rise, multi-family, condominiums, high-end residential, industrial and warehouse, chemical plants, highways, airports, hospitals, schools and data centers.

In addition to his active construction practice, Mr. Maloney has also successfully represented clients in many other types of business litigation and disputes, including breach of contract, landlord/tenant disputes, business torts, government bid protests and other administrative proceedings, creditors’ rights, including complex commercial foreclosures, bankruptcy and workouts, shareholder and partnership disputes, class actions, antitrust claims, and corporate governance and securities disputes. Mr. Maloney is an experienced trial attorney, having handled jury and bench trials, as well as arbitrations and administrative proceedings. He has also successfully handled appeals in Florida and federal appellate courts.

Prior to joining Jimerson Birr, Mr. Maloney was a partner in an Am Law 100 national law firm, where he was the vice chair of the construction practice group and chair of its Jacksonville office litigation department. Mr. Maloney has been successfully practicing law in Jacksonville for 20 years. He has also been extensively involved in the Jacksonville area community, including serving as the pro bono General Counsel for the Clay County Chamber of Commerce, serving on and chairing the Downtown District Board of the YMCA of Florida’s First Coast, and being a longtime member and serving on the Board of the Rotary Club of South Jacksonville.

Prior to practicing law, Mr. Maloney grew up in North Carolina and later Vero Beach, Florida. After college, he worked in the admissions office at his alma mater, Florida State University, before later attending law school at the University of Florida. He resides in the San Marco neighborhood in Jacksonville with his wife, Amy, two children, Christopher and Sarah, and dog, Molly. When he is not working, he enjoys spending time with his family, travel and tennis, and is a devoted fan of the Florida State Seminoles and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Construction Law – Litigation/Arbitration/Dispute Resolution

Represented a national electrical subcontractor in connection with multi-million dollar delay, acceleration and disruption claim on a $500 million public project in South Florida.
Acted as lead trial counsel for a public U.K. chemical manufacturer in defense of four mechanic’s lien lawsuits claiming more than $25 million in total mechanic’s liens related to the construction of a first of its kind chemical plant for production of ethylene oxide from plant-based ethanol in Delaware. Successfully employed a strategy to stay the lawsuits through enforcement of mandatory pre-suit mediation subcontract requirements and obtained successful mediated settlements of all of the lawsuits for less than half of the total claimed amounts of the liens.
Represented a Catholic Diocese in a major construction and design defect litigation involving substantial structural and seismic defects and water intrusion in the Diocese’s Cathedral, and helped successfully obtain an eight figure global settlement for the Diocese from more than 30 defendants prior to trial.
Represented the court-appointed receiver of a failed national electrical contractor in a multi-party AAA arbitration concerning the $1.3 billion dollar Utah Data Center constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers for the National Security Agency that involved highly complex electrical engineering defects and delay claims. Successfully obtained a multi-million settlement for the client after the second week of arbitration.
Represented a charter school developer in connection with major construction defect claims related to water intrusion at school, resulting in a successful mediated settlement in which client recovered all repair costs, investigative costs and substantial portion of attorney’s fees.
Represented a Fortune 50 company in connection with the development of multi-million dollar claims against a designer and contractor for project cost overruns in connection with the construction of an industrial ethanol plant.
Successfully obtained for a contractor client a complete dismissal of an AAA arbitration brought by a subcontractor based on lack of arbitrability of the dispute.
Assisted a general contractor client in successfully resolving a wrongful death claim by the estate of a subcontractor’s employee that was killed in a jobsite accident based on assertion of a workers’ compensation immunity defense.
Represented a paving contractor in a multi-million-dollar dispute with a community development district over a road project. Successfully defended the district’s liquidated damages claims and obtained a net settlement of almost $1 million for the client on its delay damages claim.
Successfully resolved a residential construction defect claim involving substantial water intrusion by obtaining the full costs of all repairs, expert investigative costs, and most attorney fees.

Construction Law – Transactional

Represented a hospital system in the preparation and negotiation of the contract documents for the design and construction of a new $150 million hospital.
Represented an international real estate developer with the preparation and negotiation of all contract documents in connection with the construction of a $40 million observation deck and lobby renovation at the tallest office tower west of the Mississippi River, which included a unique thrill feature involving an exterior glass slide between the 70th and 69th floors.
Prepared and negotiated the contract documents for the construction of multiple apartment complexes throughout Florida, each in excess of $25 million in contract value.
Represented a pharmaceutical company in the preparation and negotiation of the contract documents for the construction of a multi-million dollar manufacturing facility.
Represented a national specialty food distributor in the negotiation of the contract documents for the construction of distribution centers in Illinois, Florida and California.
Represented a general contractor in the development and drafting of its standard subcontract terms and conditions.

Business Litigation

Acted as lead counsel representing a lender in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case involving a multi-million dollar loan secured by an office building. Developed a strategy to seek dismissal of a borrower’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed on the eve of foreclosure, and after a bench trial, the bankruptcy court dismissed the Chapter 11 bankruptcy outright on the basis that it was filed by the borrower in bad faith.
Successfully obtained a court order dismissing with prejudice of all claims against a shipping company client in a multi-district federal antitrust conspiracy class action litigation in Puerto Rico involving the ocean shipping industry, and in which all other defendants in the action later had to pay millions in settlement.
Represented a public company client in Delaware federal district court in a multi-million dollar lawsuit related to its duty as a stock issuer to timely register a transfer of securities, and successfully obtained a complete victory, with the court dismissing all state UCC and federal securities law claims asserted against the client with prejudice.
Assisted a national specialty food distribution company successfully stay all discovery and obtain a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal of all federal antitrust claims asserted by a former customer.
Represented a Fortune 50 health insurance company in obtaining a favorable settlement of a wrongful death claim by an employee of a subcontractor based on assertion of workers’ compensation immunity.
Acted as lead trial counsel for a client in an administrative trial against the Florida Department of Revenue that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax assessments, interest and penalties that were asserted against the client being dropped in full.
Successfully obtained more than $2.5 million in recoveries for a lender client on a failed multi-million real estate development loan by successfully recovering the real property via foreclosure, and obtaining more monetary recoveries from guarantors, including by asserting fraudulent transfer claims and by seizing and liquidating stock held in multiple brokerage accounts.
Represented a national lender client in the successful prosecution of over well one hundred commercial foreclosures throughout the State of Florida.

Government Bid Protests

Assisted a client in a successful bid protest trial over a contract award by the Florida Department of Corrections in which the administrative law judge reversed the Department’s original decision to award the multi-million dollar contract to client’s competitor and instead ordered that the contract be awarded to the client.
Represented a Fortune 50 health insurer in the successful defense of multiple bid protests of an award of a more than $1 billion contract to provide Medicaid managed care services to the State of Iowa in the State’s largest ever procurement, including victories at the administrative trial level and on appeal.
Successfully represented a Fortune 50 health insurer in defeating multiple bid protests of a $1 billion contract awarded to the client to provide Medicaid managed care services in the State of Georgia, resulting in the client retaining the contract.
Represented an underground utility contractor in a successful bid protest of a contract award by the City of Jacksonville in which the City reversed the original award decision and awarded the contract to the client based on arguments related to compliance with small and emerging business requirements.
Represented a food service provider in a successful protest of a Florida county’s award of a multi-year food and beverage services contract for its convention center in which based on the protest arguments, the county rejected the original contract award to the client’s competitor and entered into an entirely new bid procurement process for the contract.
Successfully resolved for a national real estate brokerage company a commission dispute with Broward County related to the County’s award of a contract to develop a marina, leading to payment of the commission to the client.
Represented a county government in connection with the defense of multiple bid protests of an award for an emergency communications system contract in which the county’s decision to reject one of the bidders and make an award to the second ranked bidder was affirmed by Board of County Commissioners after an evidentiary hearing on the vendor protests.
Represented a public, non-profit hospital system in Florida in connection with a comprehensive update and revision of its procurement code.

Reported Decisions

Harb v. Evabank, 100 So. 3d 711 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012)
Pro Tech Monitoring, Inc. v. State, Dept. of Corr., 72 So. 3d 277 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011)
Nine Mile, LLC v. Sec. Real Estate Services, Inc., 56 So. 3d 22 (Fla. 5th DCA 2011)
Bank of Am., N.A. v. Putnal Seed & Grain, Inc., 965 So. 2d 300 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007)
Williams v. Florida Cmty. Coll. of Jacksonville, 971 So. 2d 122 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007)
Leavitt Communications, Inc. v. Quality Communications of Am., Inc., 939 So. 2d 257 (Fla. 1st DCA 2006)
Brown v. Comcast Cablevision of Tallahassee, 134 Fed. Appx. 423 (11th Cir. 2005)