News Releases
Schiff Hardin LLP Mourns the Passing of William Postner
December 28, 2007
 William Postner |
William Postner, Of Counsel in Schiff Hardin's Construction Law Group in the firm's New York office, passed away December 27 at the age of 69 after a long illness.
A particularly distinguished construction law attorney, Mr. Postner joined Schiff Hardin in 2006. He represented owners, design-builders, contractors, construction managers, subcontractors, suppliers, architects, engineers, and sureties. He negotiated and drafted contracts on behalf of those parties, prepared, negotiated and mediated claims, and prosecuted and defended suits before arbitration tribunals, administrative agencies, and state and federal courts. He also served as an expert witness in construction-related litigation.
Mr. Postner lectured for the American Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, various law schools, engineering societies, contractor associations, and other professional organizations on construction contract documents and claims, competitive bidding, changes and changed conditions, dispute resolution, the engineer as an expert witness, architects' and engineers' liability, suretyship, and construction insurance. He also served as a Special Master in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York.
He was the author of "The Ball’s in My Court (Because I Drafted the Contract) and I'm the Referee (or Chief Executioner)," a section in Construction Law & Risk Management: Case Notes and Articles, Ardent Publications (2003), and he was the co-author of the New York Construction Law Manual, Shepard's/McGraw-Hill (1992) republished by West Publishing (1998; supplement, 2005) and "Fixing the Failure and Settling the Dispute," a chapter in Construction Failures, Wiley Law Publications (1989).
Mr. Postner received many awards and professional honors, such as: Leading Lawyer – Construction, Chambers USA – America's Leading Lawyers for Business, International Who's Who of Construction Lawyers, Super Lawyer – Construction, New York Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, - Construction, and "One of the New York Area's Best Construction Lawyers" – New York Magazine.
His professional memberships included: American College of Construction Lawyers (Board of Governors, 2000-2002), American Arbitration Association Construction Industry Panel of Arbitrators, New York State Bar Association, and American Bar Association.
Mr. Postner received his undergraduate degree (B.A., 1960) from Fordham University and his law degree (LL.B., 1964) from the New York University School of Law.
Prior to joining Schiff Hardin, Mr. Postner was a founding partner at Postner & Rubin, where he practiced from 1980 to 2006. Earlier, from 1970 to 1979, he was a partner at the firm of Max E. Greenberg, Trayman, Cantor, Reiss & Blasky, after starting his career as an associate at the Max E. Greenberg law firm in 1964.
