David Ratterman is a member of Stites & Harbison’s Construction Service Group, concentrating his practice on issues involving the fabricated structural steel industry in the United States and internationally. His immersion in the construction industry began as a water boy on construction sites at age 10 and evolved through a series of engineering and construction positions with the U.S. Navy, state government and private industry.
He has been an officer or advisor to 12 industry trade organizations and professional societies involved in the international fabricated structural steel industry. Since 1989, he has served as Secretary and General Counsel of the American Institute of Steel Construction and also serves on that body’s “Code of Standard Practice” Committee and as counsel to its National Steel Bridge Alliance.
David has been lead trial counsel for numerous contractors, structural steel fabricators design professionals, material suppliers and construction owners involved in complex matters in litigation, arbitration and construction mediation. Formally trained as a construction arbitrator and mediator and listed on several national construction neutral panels, David has participated as an ADR neutral or advocate in resolution of construction disputes totaling in excess of a billion dollars.
Mr. Ratterman was also an advisor to FEMA Task Forces that investigated structural damage caused by the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake and the September 11, 2001, collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
He is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, is a Fellow and has served on the Board of Governors of the American College of Construction Lawyers and was the Founder and first Chair of the Kentucky Bar Association Section on Construction and Public Contract Law. David is listed in “Who’s Who in American Law”; The Best Lawyers in America ®; Chambers USA, “America’s Leading Lawyers in Business.
He has received the ACCL Past President’s Award. In 2016, he was inducted into the University of Kentucky College of Engineering Hall of Distinction; and is a Past President of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association.