Charney: Our practice in New York is very, very heavy in the area of construction law—90% plus of what we do is construction law, with a particular focus on the representation of general contractors and construction managers. We do have some very strong practice areas outside of construction law that service both our construction clients and also service those outside of the construction industry.

GlobeSt.com: How long have you been at Peckar & Abramson and what was your most recent position there?

Charney: Twenty-two years I believe it is now. I’ve been a partner at our firm for almost 18 years now. Most recently, I had two different roles—and we change nomenclature in our firm. I had been co-managing partner of the firm with Bob Peckar. Bob and I were co-managing partners for four years. Bob of course had been with the firm for 34 or 35 years being one of the founding partners. I had also been the managing partner of our New York office. So what happened now is I’ve ascended to a senior position of being the chairman of the firm, which we didn’t have before.

It’s quite common for law firms to give little or no thought to how the firm transitions and succeeds with the future leadership. What often happens is that you have founding partners who stay at the helm and ride that out until they are in their 70s and 80s and the firms contract and die. And in fact for many law firms in the construction industry that’s precisely what happens. Our firm has been very different that way and owes so much of our difference to the insight that our founding partners had—particularly Bob Peckar but also Rich Abramson.

GlobeSt.com: What is your take on the state of construction in the city?

Charney: I think what happened in 2011 was that there was a growing sense of optimism as the year rolled through its first few months. And it was interesting because I would hear from the various people that I talk to in the industry that there was a good feeling for the first half of 2011. Things were really starting to move in the right direction, but last summer, when there was the craziness in Washington about budgets and then the European financial crisis, it seemed that almost every bit of optimism that we had been hearing in the first six months of 2011 basically got put on hold.

GlobeSt.com: Given your unique vantage point, what do see as the top issues facing the construction industry here in the city? Economic uncertainty? Regulations?

Charney: Number one, I think is the economy—no surprise to anyone that almost every other issue that I would put on that list has some meaningful connection to an economy that is certainly not as robust as it was four or five years ago. So the economy is affecting the construction industry in dramatic ways. There are issues that are to some extent related to the economy and there are some that have no relationship to the economy. I see, for example, the labor issues that are facing the construction industry now are ones that have some connection to the economy, but they also have their roots in a more active non-union element in the construction industry that hadn’t been present before.

Another thing that we see quite significantly is the level of regulatory activity taking place in the construction and development area. The degree to which the government and regulators are overseeing and focusing on the construction industry is certainly a very common issue. I also see some positive issues that are affecting the industry, such as consideration of alternative delivery systems, lean construction.

GlobeSt.com: How do you see the issue of union construction workers versus non-union construction workers affecting velocity and pricing?

Charney: I think most immediately it has created an area where there is quite a bit of uncertainty. There are more questions now about construction labor in New York City than there are answers. I think that the fact is that we are living through a period where the labor issue is just unresolved.