Jonathan Burwood focuses his practice primarily in the areas of surety bond, construction, environmental and commercial litigation. He represents sureties, contractors, residential builders, planned community associations and commercial property owners in the context of counseling, negotiation, litigation, arbitration, mediation and bankruptcy.

Mr. Burwood’s sophisticated national litigation practice emphasizes surety and construction and includes the handling of performance bond claims, payment bond claims, motor vehicle dealer bonds, motor vehicle repair shop bonds, Miller Act bonds, subdivision improvements, construction defect, residential and commercial development, design disputes, delay claims, differing site conditions, contractor bankruptcies, contract drafting, negotiation and interpretation, public and private projects, negotiation of tender, takeover and completion agreements, mechanics liens, indemnity, collateral recovery, pre-judgment security and collection. A selection of Mr. Burwood’s representative matters includes:

• In 2010, Mr. Burwood secured a dismissal with prejudice on behalf of a performance bond surety facing project owner claims exceeding $5.6 million following forty days of trial.
• In 2010, Mr. Burwood secured a defense verdict and substantial affirmative recovery on behalf of a performance bond surety following nine months of arbitration involving five parties and total claims exceeding $4 million.
• Between 2004 and 2011, Mr. Burwood handled in excess of three hundred performance and payment bond claims resulting from the overlapping defaults and dissolutions of two significant regional contractors. In managing the surety's response to these contractor failures, Mr. Burwood successfully resolved hundreds of litigation matters, involving contract and statutory claims, technical issues requiring expert consultation, bankruptcy complications, owner/obligee considerations, competing surety interests, time-sensitive and simultaneous project completions, and indemnity rights.

Mr. Burwood has significant experience enforcing surety rights under the AIA A312 (1984 ed.) performance bond. Mr. Burwood joined Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in July 2005 to open the firm's Boston office. Mr. Burwood’s prior experience included the representation of planned communities and residential developers in Phoenix, Arizona.

Since 2007, Mr. Burwood has been named annually to the Rising Stars list in the area of Construction / Surety by New England Super Lawyers magazine. This designation is reserved for only 2.5 percent of all attorneys in New England.

Mr. Burwood is an active member of the Fidelity and Surety Law Committee, Tort, Trial & Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association. He is also a member of the Construction Law Committee of the Real Estate and Litigation Section of the Boston Bar Association. Mr. Burwood’s professional memberships also include the Surety Association of Massachusetts and the National Bond Claims Association. Mr. Burwood was a contributing author to the Massachusetts section of “Payment Bond Manual, Third Edition,” which was published by The American Bar Association, April 2006. His publications also include “From the Sidelines to the Front Lines: The Surety’s Arbitration Dilemma,” in the May 2008 edition of the Surety Claims Institute Newsletter and "Buy American ... Or Else," published in the Fall 2010 edition of the Fidelity & Surety Law Committee Newsletter.

Mr. Burwood’s presentations include:

• “Avoiding Traps for the Unwary: Considerations in Handling Payment Bond Claims," Hinshaw, Chicago, Illinois, April 2011.
• "Overstimulated: The ARRA and Why Your Bond Principal Is Not Too Big To Fail," National Bond Claims Association Seminar, Monterey, California, October 2010.
• “Recent Developments with Respect to the AIA A312 Payment Bond,” Central States Surety Association, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, July 2008.
• “Advanced Topics in Construction Law and Litigation,” Construction Law Committee of the Boston Bar Association, Boston, Massachusetts, June 2008.
• “Avoiding Traps for the Unwary: Considerations in Handling Payment Bond Claims," Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America, Hartford, Connecticut, November 2007.