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 by The Florida Bar, serves as 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 to Florida Trend’s Legal Elite, Florida Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America®, which recently designated him Jacksonville’s “Construction Lawyer of the Year” for the fifth time. In July 2022, Chip rotated off the Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) for Florida’s Fourth Judicial Circuit after 11 years, 2 terms as chair, nearly 500 candidate interviews and the appointment of 33 judges. In 2016, he was named to the inaugural class of Jacksonville’s “Ultimate Attorneys” by his peers and the Jacksonville Business Journal, an honor he received again in 2020, when the “Best of the Bar” class was chosen from a slate of the four previous years’ honorees.

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), a 2018 graduate of Leadership Jacksonville and a current member of the Urban Land Institute, he is also a former member and chair of the St. John’s Cathedral Properties Committee, on which he served for eight years overseeing the $26 million in historical buildings that make up the campus of St. John’s Cathedral.

Chip is a lifelong resident of Jacksonville. He and his wife of more than 30 years, Carrie, are the proud parents of a daughter and a son.

CERTIFICATIONS

• Licensed general contractor (CG C026027) (inactive)
• Board Certified in Construction Law by The Florida Bar

HONORS & AWARDS

• AV Preeminent rated by Martindale-Hubbell
• Martindale-Hubbell Client Champion Silver Award 2018-2024
• Fourth Judicial Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission Appointed 2011, Chair 2012, Reappointed 2014 & 2018
• “Florida Legal Elite” 2010-2012, 2014, 2019-2022, Florida Trend Magazine
• “Ultimate Attorney” 2016 (Inaugural Class) and 2020 (“Best of the Bar”) Jacksonville Business Journal
• Jacksonville Construction Lawyer of the Year, 2012, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2024, Best Lawyers in America®
• Best Lawyers in America 2009-2012; 2014-2024
• Florida Super Lawyers 2006-2024
• Top 25 Jacksonville Super Lawyers 2021-2024

U.S. DISTRICT COURT ADMISSIONS

• U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida

MEMBERSHIPS

• The Florida Bar, Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section Construction Law Committee Member
• Jacksonville Bar Association
• American Bar Association Member Forum, Committee on the Construction Industry
• Associated Builders & Contractors, Florida First Coast Chapter
• St. Johns Cathedral Properties Committee (former chair)
• Urban Land Institute
• Leadership Jacksonville (Class of 2018)
• JAX Chamber Trustee

EDUCATION

• Harvard University, Program on Negotiation, 2014
• Mercer University School of Law, J.D., May 1986
• University of Florida, Bachelor of Building Construction, December 1982