In Sunday’s Project Management workshop, the question came up about a diagram that depicts “CM as agent”. Because there is no specific AIA contract associated with this, this method wasn’t included in our exercise.
The CM as agent can act on behalf of the owner. Legally, the owner holds the contracts with the architect and contractor, but operationally, the CM can engage with the architect and contractor as if he was the owner.
Understanding the inner workings of such an owner/agent relationship is outside the scope of the ARE, but hopefully this description helps with any confusion regarding this.