Effective business development is still about the basics, affirms attorney Mitch Milby, owner of Milby, PLLC. He says that means getting in front of the right people (i.e., the decision-makers who will decide whether to hire you), developing a personal relationship with your clients that will sustain you over the long term, and providing excellent service/work and bottom-line requirements regardless of the economy. “I keep the clients I have developed over the years and continually meet new ones [because] clients refer others to us,” he says.

The average undocumented Mexican works in the U.S. for 3-6 years before returning to Mexico. Why do you care? If an illegal immigrant is injured or dies on your project, there is an 80-85% chance that he is illegal, and, if you are found liable, you will likely pay a lost wages claim based on future work in the U.S., not Mexico, even though the data shows he likely would have returned to Mexico well before retirement.

Architects routinely ask us how to “encourage” a non-paying client to pay unpaid design fees, oftentimes when the client is already in possession of the design work. Aside from costly, time- consuming litigation (which should be viewed as the last resort of dispute resolution), the most effective method by which an architect can avoid effectively advancing the client fees with no prospect of payment is to file a lien. This article will respond to the more common questions from architects regarding their lien rights in Texas.