John S. Mrowiec limits his practice at Conway & Mrowiec Attorneys LLLP to clients in the construction industry.  Mrowiec represents project participants in contract drafting, contract administration, claim preparation and dispute resolution. He has tried, arbitrated, mediated or otherwise resolved several complex disputes throughout the United States on private and public building, institutional, arena, heavy, and industrial construction projects.

Mrowiec was selected by his peers to the initial board of Leading Lawyers Network, to “Best Lawyers in America” and Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.  Mrowiec also holds a Martindale-Hubbell Rating of ‘AV Preeminent.’   In 2014, “Best Lawyers”^® selected him as “Lawyer of the Year – Construction Law – Chicago.”  In 2019 and 2025, “Best Lawyers” selected him as “Lawyer of the Year – Litigation – Construction – Chicago.”

Mrowiec’s more recently concluded significant dispute resolutions were

• in arbitration and mediation obtained eight-figure recovery for owner for construction and design defects;
• in arbitration, obtained award of owner’s seven-figure claim for extended construction loan interest against delaying contractor;
• in mediation, obtained mid-seven-figure recovery for residential high-rise owner for defective roof construction;
• in litigation and mediation, successfully resolved contractor’s eight-figure claim against client owner for low seven figures;
• in litigation and mediation, successfully defended general contractor from mid-eight figure condominium association claim of defects resulting in low six-figure settlement;
• pre-dispute resolution, raised principle that combined, builder’s risk insurance and contractual waiver of subrogation, prevents intramural litigation of owner, design-builder and subcontractor insureds over potentially nine-figure rebuilding of in-progress facility;
• in arbitration and mediation, obtained seven-figure recovery for owner from architect for delay arising from errors and omissions;
• resolving on behalf of subcontractor multi-million dollar claim of delays and disruption on in-progress unit price urban underground telecommunications infrastructure project through mediation;
• assisting contractor in prosecuting in dispute resolution and resolving eight-figure claim for delays and disruptions and owner’s claim of defective coating on eighteen-mile underground bitumen pipeline;
• assisting grouting contractor in prosecution of multi-million dollar administrative claim for differing conditions, variations in estimated quantities and extended duration on world’s largest quarry reservoir project resolved without litigation;
• obtaining summary judgment on behalf of general contractor as Additional Insured on duty of subcontractor’s commercial general liability insurer to defend from owner’s underlying complaint alleging water damage from allegedly defective work finding “occurrence” and “property damage” in $9 million claim;
• resolving multi-million dollar claim of adjacent owner on behalf of construction project owner after mediation primarily utilizing indemnifying general contractor’s disputed “contractual liability” coverage feature of commercial general liability insurance and subcontractor’s insurance;
• obtaining summary judgment on behalf of structural concrete contractor on fifty-two story residential condominium building on allegedly defective work claim filed by condominium association seeking millions and then, after underlying suit, recovering in separate suit all defense costs from owner-controlled insurance program insurer;
• successfully representing developer of residential high rise in recovering against architect for rework necessary to conform apartments to accessibility requirements;
• defeating mortgagee’s motion for summary determination of priority resulting in nearly $9 million purchase of foundation contractor’s rights (84% of principal debt) against developer of abandoned project to construct tallest building in the western hemisphere;
• recovering for a general contractor a seven-figure claim on an urban school project in a multi-week arbitration against an earth retention subcontractor involving the cause of damages to an adjacent property and loss of efficiency, delay and acceleration damages on the impacted project through arbitration award, confirmation, subcontractor’s appeal and collection from appeal bond surety; and
• recovering for a multiple prime contractor a seven-figure claim in a multi-week arbitration against an owner involving out-of-sequence work on a hospital project caused by owner’s construction manager and resulting in damages for loss of efficiency, delay and acceleration through award and collection.

Mrowiec has drafted and negotiated billions of dollars in construction, construction management, design-build, design and trade contracts.  Mrowiec’s more recent significant contract drafting, negotiation and project administration engagements were:

• 40-story Class A+ residential/mixed-use building in Charlotte;
• 38-story Class A+ office building in Charlotte;
• 30-story Class A office building core and shell and amenities areas in Denver;
• 50-story office tower in Chicago;
• $225 million subcontract on rail project in Chicago;
• $400 million ultra-luxury residential condominium in San Francisco;
• $170 million twin-tower related residential high-rise in Chicago;
• $280 million office tower in downtown San Francisco;
• infrastructure and six-building mixed use development in Colorado;
• forty-one-story apartment tower on Michigan Ave., Chicago;
• twenty-four-story residential high-rise in River North, Chicago,
• $200 million hotel – condominium project in River East, Chicago;
• thirty-six-story office building in Chicago Loop;
• nine-story mixed use building in Evanston, Illinois.
• eight-figure residential compound in Bahamas;
• twenty-three story high-rise luxury condominium building in Chicago’s Gold Coast;
• renovation of a vintage high-rise office building into the first Virgin Hotel in the U.S.;and
• student private housing apartment complexes in North Carolina, Arizona and Kentucky.

Authored over 90 construction law articles and has addressed construction industry groups on over eighty occasions.  

Mrowiec is a co-author of the chapter on general contractors’ mechanics lien rights in the leading publication concerning Illinois mechanics lien rights, of a chapter on representing the general contractor on Pre-Contract Issues and of a chapter on Delay Claims for “Construction Change Order Claims 3d” in the Wolters Kluwer Construction Law Library.

Mrowiec has authored manuals on the American Institute of Architects’ family of construction contracts and related documents; new developments in construction law; public construction bidding and performance; design/build and construction management contracts and disputes; delay and labor productivity claims; and mechanics lien and payment bond claims.

Member of Society of Illinois Construction Attorneys; ABA Construction Forum; ABA Litigation Section – Construction; Associate Member of Chicago Building Congress; Chicagoland Associated General Contractors; American Institute of Architects; and Associated General Contractors.

Since 2000, Mrowiec was a member of the Facilities Committee, since 2005, the Board of Trustees, for the period 2010 – June, 2015, Chair of the Facilities Committee, 2012-15, member of the Executive Committee of the Board, and since 2016, a Life Trustee of the Francis W. Parker School, Chicago, Illinois.

Reported Cases:

• Old Republic Insurance Co. v. Leopardo Companies, Inc., No. 14-2421 (N.D. Ill., March 11, 2015) followed in Westfield Insurance Co. v. National Decorating Service, 147 F. Supp. 3d 708 (N.D. Ill. 2015)
• Board of Directors of the Prairie District Homes Tower Residences Condominium Association v. Leopardo Companies, Inc., 2012 IL App (1st) 111823-U (Nov. 21, 2012, Rule 23)
• Macomb Interceptor Drainage District v. Kilpatrick, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 189678 (E.D. Mich. Oct. 31, 2012)
• Meyne Co. v. Edward E. Gillen Co., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166300 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 27, 2010)
• J.A. Jones Construction Co. v. Wilmington Trust Co., (In re Resort at Summerlin Litigation), 127 P.3d 1076 (Nev. 2006)
• Lakewood Prairie, LLC v. Ibarra Concrete Co., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46185 (N.D. Ill. May 27, 2008)
• County of DuPage v. Matthei & Colin Associates, 369 Ill. App. 3d 1051 (2d Dist. 2007)
• Midwest Engineering Services v. International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96524 (N.D. Ill. 2006)
• Acme Metals, Inc. v. Raytheon Engineers & Constructors, Inc. (In re Acme Metals, Inc.), 257 B.R. 714 (Bankr. Ct. D. Del. 2000)
• Southwest Financial Bank & Trust Co. v. George Hyman Construction Co., 940 F. Supp. 1331 (N.D. Ill. 1996)
• United States f/u/b DJM Construction, Inc. v. Rust Engineering Co., 1996 WL 204318 (N.D. Ill. 1996)
• Mellon Stuart Construction, Inc. v. MWRDGC, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3493 (N.D. Ill. 1995)
• Downey, Inc. v. Bradley Center Corp., 524 N.W.2d 915 (Wis. Ct. App. 1994)
• In re KNM Roswell LP, 126 B.R. 548 (Bankr. Ct. N.D. Ill. 1991)
• In re Highland Park Associates LP, 130 B.R. 55 (Bankr. Ct. N.D. Ill. 1991)
• Mellon Stuart Construction, Inc. v. MWRDGC, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7669 (N.D. Ill. 1990)