PBN Leaders & Achievers 2024 Awards
John Bulman | Pierce Atwood LLP | Partner
JOHN BULMAN PERFORMED his unsupervised first jury trial 11 months into his career as an attorney – an extremely rare feat in the legal field. He has not slowed down since.
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Bulman, now a partner at Pierce Atwood LLP in Providence, has garnered a national reputation as a top construction attorney. He became a construction lawyer “accidentally,” after he was tasked with representing a local contractor at his first law firm. Since then, he has served as president of the American College of Construction Lawyers and as vice chairperson of Roger Williams University’s construction management professional advisory board, among other positions.
“I don’t think there is a higher accolade I can get as a construction lawyer,” he said of his time as ACCL president. “These are 240 of the most well-known and accomplished construction attorneys in the country, and they chose to make me their president. That’s pretty significant.”
Bulman is a renowned mediator, entrusted with resolving disputes across the country as a neutral third party. In construction, there is no drought of disputes and, in most cases, there is no easy answer.
“There’s always the need to have a third party come in and get their perspective on what the problems are,” he said. “Even though you’re dealing with steel, concrete, masonry, buildings and designs, disputes come up that are a lot more varied and subtle.”
Over the next two years, Bulman is booked across the U.S. to resolve disputes as an arbitrator.
Bulman came to Rhode Island for a “two-year experiment” in 1984 and has not left since. He has worked at Tillinghast Collins & Graham and then Little Bulman Medeiros & Whitney, which merged with Pierce Atwood in 2013.
At this point in his career, Bulman now serves as a mentor to younger attorneys. One attorney even has a “WWJD,” or “What would John do?,” action plan in which they ask him any question about how to approach a project.
“I’ve got your back,” he said to his mentees. “I will support you. I will take any call from you at any hour of the day. If you have a question or concern, you can bounce it off me.”
