MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP announced today that Diana S. Parks has been named Co-Chair of the Firm’s Public-Private Partnership (P3) Industry Group. Ms. Parks, who is a Partner in Dorsey’s Southern California office, will join existing P3 Industry Group Co-Chairs Jay Lindgren and Lynnette Slater Crandall, both of whom are Partners in Dorsey’s Minneapolis office.
Ms. Parks has extensive experience advising public and private clients involved in major P3 infrastructure projects throughout the country and Canada. She has represented and worked with public and private clients across North America for the last 18 years in developing P3 programs and delivering marquee projects. Ms. Parks has routinely acted as lead negotiator on behalf of public agencies for complex Design-Build and Concession agreements. She has also led projects for Design-Build teams and interacted as the lead construction representative with respect to negotiations with the concessionaire on large-scale transportation concession projects across the United States and Canada.
Ms. Parks has spent her career in the transportation sector dealing with cutting edge, large-scale infrastructure projects, and has the proven ability to solve extremely complex and contentious disputes, amendments and claims that inevitably arise in the execution phase of a P3 project. In doing so, she brings the benefit of having advised public and private clients on liability and risk allocation issues and has worked closely with “best in practice” risk management teams in developing her knowledge and understanding of insurable and uninsurable risk and liability, as well as innovative solutions to reach amenable solutions on mega, high stakes deals.
Dorsey’s P3 Industry Group includes more than 50 attorneys from key practice areas who are specifically committed to providing advice and counsel to public and private entities involved in the development, financing, construction, operation and management of public-private projects. Dorsey’s national P3 practice has been successful in structuring public-private partnerships using standard development, financing and contracting tools, as well as innovative partnerships that require negotiating or legislating creative new financing or partnership models to achieve desired incentives and goals.
Dorsey’s P3 Industry Group has been instrumental in some of the largest and most innovative recent P3 projects in the country, including U.S. Bank Stadium, the new home of the Minnesota Vikings, and the Mayo Destination Medical Center project. Dorsey’s P3 Industry Group has also served the Metropolitan Council, a $1 billion regional planning agency for the Twin Cities seven-county metropolitan area, as legal counsel to handle contracting and procurement work on the Central Corridor, a light rail project connecting the downtowns of Minneapolis and St Paul. Dorsey has recently been selected through competitive RFPs as P3 legal counsel qualified to perform work for both the Washington DC Office of P3 and the Puerto Rico P3 Authority.
“Diana Parks is one of the pre-eminent P3 infrastructure lawyers in the United States,” noted Ken Cutler, Managing Partner of Dorsey & Whitney. “Her expertise and experience have added new scope and depth to Dorsey’s strong P3 Industry Group, and she will be a great addition to the Group’s leadership.”
“The deep bench of expertise across the P3 Group and the diverse geographical footprint of the Firm distinguish Dorsey from the pack,” noted Ms. Parks. “I am proud of the Firm’s commitment to diversity (Dorsey received a 100% rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2017 Corporate Equality Index) and I am truly honored to be a part of the leadership of this Firm.”
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