Henry G. “Chip” Bachara

There’s a reason for the row of hard hats hanging on the wall in Chip Bachara’s office. The founding partner of Bachara Construction Law group has spent his entire life in and around the construction industry.

Following in the footsteps of his father, a WWII veteran who returned from the Pacific and became a homebuilder in Jacksonville, Chip literally learned the business from the ground up. He worked as a laborer for his father’s company while in high school, then earned a degree in Building Construction from the University of Florida and obtained his certified general contractor’s license.

After working for two of Jacksonville’s largest commercial construction companies, Chip earned a law degree from Mercer University. Since that time, he has practiced exclusively in the area of construction litigation. He served as an associate with Bedell, Dittmar, DeVault & Pillans (now known as the Bedell Firm), and as an associate and partner with Baumer, Bradford & Walters, which later merged with Smith, Gambrell & Russell. He formed Bachara Construction Law group in 2007 to represent a full range of clients including government entities, private developers and owners, contractors, trade contractors, sureties and insurers in construction disputes, including construction defect claims.

Chip is Board Certified in Construction Law, serves an arbitrator for complex construction disputes, and is a Florida Supreme Court-Certified mediator. Committed to the highest standards of excellence, he has been AV-rated by Martindale Hubbell since 1991 and named multiple times in Florida Trend’s Legal Elite, Florida Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America®, which recently named him Jacksonville’s “Construction Lawyer of the Year” for the third time. Chip was reappointed for a third term on the Fourth Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission in 2018. Originally appointed in 2011, he served as chair from 2012-2014. In 2016, he was named to the inaugural class of Jacksonville’s “Ultimate Attorneys” by his peers and the Jacksonville Business Journal.

In addition to being active in professional organizations, including service as a former chair of The Florida Bar Standing Committee on Professionalism and as a member of The Florida Bar’s Construction Law Institute Committee, Chip has served on the board of the Northeast Florida Homebuilders Association and is a former chair of the Florida Home Builders Association Legal Action Committee. A Trustee of JaxChamber (the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce) and a 2018 graduate of Leadership Jacksonville, he has also served as a member of the St. John’s Cathedral Properties Committee since 2011.

Chip is a lifelong resident of Jacksonville. He and his wife of more than 25 years, Carrie, are the proud parents of a daughter and a son.

Bachara Construction Law Group:

With decades of collective experience in all aspects of construction law, the team at Bachara Construction Law Group is qualified to handle every type of construction dispute.

In the courtroom or at the negotiating table, our goal is to handle your legal needs in the most timely and cost-effective manner possible, so you can get back to doing what you do best. We also provide mediation and arbitration services and regularly negotiate and draft contracts on behalf of our clients.

Named one of the Best Law Firms in America by U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers in 2014 and 2018, BCLG’s commitment to construction law is based on experience and rooted in family tradition. Our founding partner, Chip Bachara, comes from a construction background and worked extensively in the industry before becoming a lawyer, and our team brings its “A” game to every case.

Although the Bachara Group is a relatively small firm, larger firms regularly refer their most complicated construction matters to us. We also partner with other firms and public entities, such as the City of Jacksonville’s Office of General Counsel, on large cases. As a result, we have been involved in nearly every major construction dispute in Northeast Florida – and others in South Florida and Georgia – since our founding in 2007.