As a leader in Womble Bond Dickinson’s Construction and Real Estate Group, Frances Haynes guides real estate developers, property owners, and contractors in high-stakes risk avoidance, dispute resolution, and real estate transactions. Frances’ broad portfolio of real estate and construction clients ranges from airlines to universities and public entities to private developers.
Clients (including global companies) turn to her for help in proactively avoiding disputes. She sees real estate and construction as components of a company’s overall business strategy, and works to ensure that real estate and construction-related compliance and risk mitigation fit into that approach.
Should disputes arise, Frances has more than 30 years of experience litigating and arbitrating construction claims, defective work warranty and liquidated damages, and construction-related employment and personal injury claims. She has successfully tried and arbitrated civil litigation cases, including seven-figure damage claims arising from personal injury, commercial breach of contract issues, indemnity claims, and construction extra work and delay claims.
Frances also guides clients through the often complex arena of real estate and construction contracts. She is experienced in all phases of the construction process, including responding to RFPs and RFQs, negotiation and documentation of construction, and architectural and engineering contracts in all iterations (i.e. Design Bid Build, CMAR, Design Build, EPC, PPP, IPD) from inception to project completion.
In addition, she has experience representing clients in state and federal bid protests.
Representative Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients
- Successful representation of a contractor in a federal bid protest at the U.S. Federal Court of Claims in a best value award for $95 million worth of work.
- Successfully represented a commercial developer/owner in trial for breach of contract and violation of prompt pay laws; following two-week trial, developer/owner won and recovered lawyer fees and costs.
- Negotiated, structured, and documented engineering, procurement and construction agreements, and solar qualified management agreements for large scale solar projects.
- Negotiated and documented architectural, engineering, and construction services agreement from inception through successful completion of the highly acclaimed Arizona Cancer Center of behalf of the owner, University Medical Center.
- Served as primary counsel defending publicly traded corporation in international litigation after the client was sued in federal court for $23 million for alleged breaches of contract, business interference, extra work, delay damages, and retention. Case favorably settled after several days of mediation following mediation-directed discovery and limited motion practice (for cost-containment reasons). Client paid contract retention, accrued interest on the retention, and anticipated defense costs only.
- Represented owners in the negotiation and documentation of all types of construction and alternative energy contracts, including integrated project delivery, design build and at-risk construction.
- Successfully defended public entity owner against a seven-figure construction claim for breach of contract, delay, and extra work claims. Following two weeks of evidentiary hearings to an administrative tribunal, client obtained a complete administrative law order in its favor and the opposition was ordered to pay client’s fees and costs in connection with the successful defense.
Professional & Civic Engagement
- Arizona State Bar Association Construction Law Section, Member (First Female Chair, Former Officer, Former Board Member and has been a member of the committee responsible for construction-related continuing legal education)
- Mediator Certificate of Completion, American Arbitration Association
- Completed a 40-hour mediation course sponsored by the Arizona Attorney's General Office
- Construction Lawyers Society of America, Trial Law Institute and Diversity Law Institute, Member
- Annual Arizona State Bar Construction Law Seminar, Panelist and presenter
- Maricopa County Bar Association, Member
- American Bar Association, Member
- Fresh Start Women's Foundation, Executive Board Member; Planning Giving Committee Chair; Legacy Society, Founding Member
Thought Leadership
- Spoken to various industry organizations including: the State Bar of Arizona, the Arizona Builders Alliance (formerly the Arizona Building Chapter of the Association of General Contractors), the National Association of Women Construction Business Owners, and the National Association of Credit Managers
- Frequent speaker at Maricopa County Bar and Arizona State Bar Association seminars. Topics have included: procurement, litigation avoidance, contract interpretation, UCC issue, arbitration and mediation of legal disputes, legal issues facing general contractors and subcontractors, the bid process, the estimating process and related disputes, bid protests and legal problems, claims against public entities, and licensing of contractors in the State of Arizona, including legal ramifications of non-compliance
- Checklist for Construction Employers as They ‘Reopen' for Business, azbigmedia.com, April 30, 2020
Honors & Awards
- Arizona Business Magazine, AZ Business Leaders, Construction, 2024
- Connect CRE, Lawyers in Real Estate Awards, Phoenix & Southwest, 2023-2024
- The Best Lawyers in America, Woodward/White, Aiken, S.C., Construction Law, Construction Litigation and Real Estate Law, 2006-2025; Commercial Litigation, 2024-2025
- Southwest Super Lawyers, 2013 Top 25 Female Attorneys, Construction Litigation, 2009-2020
- Martindale-Hubbell, "AV/Preeminent Attorney" rating, Highest Possible Peer Review Rating in Legal Ability and Ethical Standards, 1993-2020, 2025
- Arizona Commercial Real Estate Magazine, "Most Influential Women in Commercial Real Estate for 2019"
- Construction Lawyers Society of America, Fellow, 2018, 2019
- Recognized as One of the Most Influential Women in Commercial Real Estate, Arizona Commercial Real Estate Magazine, August 2019
Languages
- Spanish
