David A. Draper

Knoxville Office
One Centre Square, Fifth Floor
620 Market Street
Knoxville, Tennessee 37902
Telephone (865) 546-4646
FAX (865) 523-6529

ddraper@lewisking.com

Education
Transylvania University, B.A. 1985
Campbell University, J.D. 1993

Bar Admission
1993 Tennessee

Practice Areas
Construction
Business/Commercial Litigation
Insurance

David Draper is a Knoxville native and shareholder in the firm’s construction law practice group.  His practice is concentrated in construction, commercial litigation, insurance coverage disputes, and landlord-tenant law. Construction law and construction related insurance coverage disputes comprise approximately 80% of Mr. Draper’s practice. 

Within the field of construction law, Mr. Draper has represented virtually all construction industry participants in industrial, commercial, and residential construction matters, including owners, developers, design professionals, general contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers.  Gross annual volume of commercial and industrial clients ranges from $1 million to $175 million.  Mr. Draper’s litigation and arbitration experience has included claims exceeding $10 million and involving allegations of defective design, defective workmanship, delay and acceleration claims, contract interpretation, non-payment claims, bid disputes, and construction site personal injury claims.  He also handles construction industry insurance coverage disputes.  His representation of owners and developers has included numerous zoning and land use matters pending before the Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission and other regional planning commissions.   

Mr. Draper’s commercial litigation practice has involved such matters as non-competition agreements, officer/director liability; tortuous interference with business relations, employee misconduct, false advertising, and breach of franchise agreements.  His clients have included sole proprietors, closely held corporations and publicly traded companies.  He has also represented a variety of businesses in environmental disputes before the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, including businesses in the oil and gas distribution, furniture manufacturing, and waste disposal industries.

Representative Experience:

• Representation of a large metropolitan government and its lead architect in arbitration proceedings initiated by the principal project contractors.  Claims of over $6 million for alleged delay, disruption, and extra work were asserted.  The claims were settled in part and arbitrated in part over 27 days of hearings, with all but $37,000 of the approximately $2 million in arbitrated claims being defeated.

• Representation of a large regional general contractor in a hotel mold case in middle Tennessee.  The claim involved allegations of improper design, product specification, defective installation of windows, and negligent contract administration. Mr. Draper was successful in obtaining a mediated settlement that minimized the contractor’s liability for betterment, while at the same time maximizing indemnity from lower tier contractors.

• Representation of a regional asphalt products and paving firm in a breach of contract case arising out of the resurfacing of a racetrack facility.  Claims involved technical evidence of paving tolerances, profile-graphs, and racecar performance under varying track conditions.  Track owner’s claims were defeated in whole at trial and client was awarded in excess of $200,000 in fees and expenses.

• Representation of three of the area’s largest school districts in complex contract negotiation for new construction.  Mr. Draper has negotiated contracts for new school construction of behalf of School Boards under design/build, owner/architect/general contractor, and owner/construction manager arrangements on projects with budgets of in excess of $50 million.  

• Representation of a mechanical engineering design firm involving North Carolina project owner claims alleging improper equipment specification in new school construction.  Mr. Draper negotiated a settlement involving development of an initial testing protocol, followed by certain remedial work and payment of a very limited range of related expenses.

• Representation of owners, designers and contractors in a multitude of foundation failure cases, ranging from settlement of multi-story office buildings to shifting and deflection of single-family homes.  Such cases have included claims of improper site investigation, poor engineered fill, and improper foundation design.

• Representation of the project engineer on a 65-mile natural gas pipeline project dispute in which client sought payment and was counter sued for allegedly improper design and contract administration.  Case was settled with payment of client’s fees.

• Representation of the apartment owners and managers in lawsuits involving alleged discrimination, wrongful eviction, alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act, and ADA accessibility claims.

Mr. Draper was the 1999 recipient of the President’s Award for distinguished service to the Knoxville Bar Association.  He was elected to the Board of Governors of the KBA, serving from 1998-2000.  Mr. Draper is a Master of the Bench in the Hamilton Burnett American Inns of Court.  Mr. Draper is also active in the Knox Area Chamber Partnership Premier Partners program and serves on the Chamber’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

Mr. Draper is past chair of the City of Knoxville Better Building Board, an administrative hearing board for building codes enforcement.  He was also appointed to the Knoxville Waterfront Development Advisory Board and the South Knoxville Connector Advisory Committee.  He is a 1985 graduate of Transylvania University, and thereafter obtained his Juris Doctor from Campbell University in North Carolina in 1993.