Government Contracts

  • May 22, 2024

    Justices' CFPB Alliance May Save SEC Courts, Not Chevron

    A four-justice concurrence to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's unique funding scheme last week carries implications for other cases pending before the court that challenge the so-called administrative state, or the permanent cadre of regulatory agencies and career government enforcers who hold sway over vast swaths of American economic life.

  • May 22, 2024

    Axon Says Deal Saved 'Vital' Services In Antitrust Case

    Axon Enterprise Inc. is looking to toss allegations that it monopolized the Taser and body-worn camera markets, arguing that its acquisition of a body camera supplier preserved vital services for police departments while a trio of municipalities said the deal resulted in higher prices.

  • May 22, 2024

    Assange Appeal May Put US Constitution In UK Crosshairs

    Julian Assange's latest appeal, in which he claims he would be denied free speech protection if he is put on trial in the U.S., could break new ground in extradition cases and end up having to be decided by Britain's highest court, legal experts say.

  • May 22, 2024

    3M Says Insurers Are Dodging Coverage Of $6B Earplug Deal

    3M and its subsidiary Aearo Technologies have reported difficulties getting their insurers to pay out more than $1.5 billion in coverage after the companies reached a $6 billion deal to settle multidistrict litigation alleging their combat earplugs failed to protect the hearing of service members and veterans.

  • May 22, 2024

    OSU Strikes Deal To Resolve Ex-Prof's Gender Bias Suit

    Ohio State University reached a tentative deal Wednesday with a former marketing professor to end her lawsuit accusing the school of firing her for working with outside clients while male colleagues escaped retribution, a notice in federal court said.

  • May 22, 2024

    5 'Fat Leonard' Bribery Pleas Axed Over Misconduct

    A California federal judge has agreed to toss felony plea deals for five former U.S. Navy officers who admitted they took bribes from the Malaysian defense contractor known as "Fat Leonard," after the government acknowledged prosecutorial missteps had tainted the high-profile case.

  • May 22, 2024

    NY Federal Reserve Associate GC Rejoins Covington

    A former Covington & Burling LLP associate who left the firm 13 years ago to join the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has returned to work as of counsel, the firm announced Tuesday.

  • May 22, 2024

    Mich. Judge Gives Final OK To Engineering Co. $8M Flint Deal

    A Michigan federal judge has granted final approval of an $8 million settlement between a civil engineering company and Flint, Michigan, residents, putting to rest claims the company failed to warn them of likely lead contamination that triggered a drinking water crisis in the city.

  • May 21, 2024

    Ship Engineers Take Case Against Shipbuilders To 4th Circ.

    A pair of naval engineers are challenging a Virginia federal judge's decision to toss their proposed class action accusing a collection of shipbuilding military contractors of entering into secret "no-poach" agreements, asking the Fourth Circuit to take up their appeal in a new filing.

  • May 21, 2024

    Groups Push For Official USMCA Interpretation To Nix Claims

    Nearly three dozen left-leaning groups are urging North American trade officials to issue an official interpretation of a disputed provision in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which they say could help nix claims seeking billions of dollars that are pending against all three countries.

  • May 21, 2024

    NY High Court Upholds State Abortion Coverage Mandate

    New York's highest court on Tuesday upheld a state law requiring employee health plans to cover medically necessary abortions, finding a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court decision didn't change the state court's determination that an exemption process in the law was constitutional.

  • May 21, 2024

    AT&T Unit Asks High Court To Take Up E-Rate FCA Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court needs to step in and decide a circuit split over whether FCC reimbursements under the E-rate program count as "claims" under the False Claims Act, said an AT&T subsidiary, urging the justices to ignore a relator who it said is trying to "muddy that clear conflict."

  • May 21, 2024

    GAO Denies Sysco's Protest Of Up-To $126M Subsistence Deal

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office denied a Sysco unit's protest of an up-to $126 million defense subsistence supply deal, saying the company failed to show the Defense Logistics Agency had to consider the awardee's performance on a similar interim deal.

  • May 21, 2024

    Copyright Claims Against Defense Agencies Go To Trial

    A Court of Federal Claims judge has ruled that a geospatial technology firm's copyright infringement claims against defense agencies must go to trial, citing disputed facts about whether related software was effectively created on the government's time and dime.

  • May 21, 2024

    Towing Co. Denies Liability For Chicago Scrapping Rule

    Chicago's contracted towing company says it is not the "moving force" behind a policy at the center of a proposed class action by Windy City residents whose vehicles were scrapped because they failed to pay tickets.

  • May 21, 2024

    Feds Fight Philly Port Authority's River Expansion Suit

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has denied allegations made by the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority that building a new port on the Delaware River southwest of Philadelphia would cut off shipping business to the city in favor of the First State.

  • May 21, 2024

    Caterpillar To Pay $800K To End DOL Race Bias Probe

    Heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. has agreed to pay $800,000 to resolve U.S. Department of Labor allegations that it refused to hire qualified Black applicants for welding positions at an Illinois facility, the agency said Tuesday.

  • May 21, 2024

    Strategic Hiring Was The New Normal For BigLaw In 2023

    The 400 largest law firms by headcount in the U.S. grew more slowly in 2023 than in the previous two years, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP surpassed the 3,000-attorney threshold, according to the latest Law360 ranking.

  • May 21, 2024

    The Law360 400: Tracking The Largest US Law Firms

    The legal market expanded more tentatively in 2023 than in previous years amid a slowdown in demand for legal services, especially in transactions, an area that has been sluggish but is expected to quicken in the near future.

  • May 21, 2024

    Construction Groups Press To Halt DOL Prevailing Wage Rule

    The U.S. Department of Labor's final rule regulating prevailing wages under the Davis-Bacon Act creates tangible damage and a Texas federal court should stop it, a group of construction groups suing the department said.

  • May 20, 2024

    Ex-IRS Agent, Five Others Sentenced In COVID Fraud Scheme

    A former Internal Revenue Service agent, his brother and four other defendants have pled guilty to participating in a scheme that netted more than $3 million in fraudulent COVID-19 pandemic relief loans.

  • May 20, 2024

    Lab Says GSK Hid Zantac Cancer Risk From Feds For Decades

    A Connecticut laboratory claims that GlaxoSmithKline defrauded federal health insurance programs for billions by hiding for 40 years that Zantac decomposes into a carcinogen even when just sitting on the shelf, in a lawsuit filed Monday in Pennsylvania federal court.

  • May 20, 2024

    SolarWinds Accuses SEC Of 'Troubling Pattern' Of Distortion

    SolarWinds Corp. is calling out the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for what it deems to be a "troubling pattern" of overstating its case against the government contractor, saying that a recent admission by the agency "dooms" claims that the company knew a customer had been hacked and failed to report it.

  • May 20, 2024

    DOJ Says Google Ad Tech Case About Coercion, Not Dealing

    The U.S. Department of Justice urged a Virginia federal judge Friday to preserve its case accusing Google of monopolizing key digital advertising technology, arguing the search giant is misconstruing a case that is really about forcing customers to use its ad exchanges, not about who the company does business with.

  • May 20, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Says Co. Wrongly DQ'd From USPS Screening Deal

    The Federal Circuit has revived a company's potential eligibility for U.S. Postal Service canine mail screening contracts, ruling the USPS reasonably found the company had mitigated conflicts of interest related to its prior work for the service.

Expert Analysis

  • Unpacking The New Russia Sanctions And Export Controls

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    Although geographically broad new prohibitions the U.S., U.K. and EU issued last week are somewhat underwhelming in their efforts to target third-country facilitators of Russia sanctions evasion, companies with exposure to noncompliant jurisdictions should pay close attention to their potential impacts, say attorneys at Shearman.

  • Args In APA Case Amplify Justices' Focus On Agency Power

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    In arguments last week in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve, the U.S. Supreme Court justices paid particular importance to the possible ripple effects of their decision, which will address when a facial challenge to long-standing federal rules under the Administrative Procedure Act first accrues and could thus unleash a flood of new lawsuits, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • Mitigating Whistleblower Risks After High Court UBS Ruling

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    While it is always good practice for companies to periodically review whistleblower trainings, policies and procedures, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent whistleblower-friendly ruling in Murray v. UBS Securities helps demonstrate their importance in reducing litigation risk, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • A Cautionary Tale On Hospital-Physician Alignment Structures

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    A $345 million settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Community Health Network highlights how quickly hospital and physician alignment relationships can violate legal restrictions on such dealings, and the onerous financial penalties that can ensue, say Robert Threlkeld and Elliott Coward at Morris Manning.

  • Contract Disputes Recap: The Terms Matter

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    Stephanie Magnell and Zachary Jacobson at Seyfarth examine recent decisions from the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which offer reminders about the importance of including contract terms to address the unexpected circumstances that may interfere with performance.

  • 6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media

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    In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • Opinion

    Biden Admin's March-In Plan Would Hurt Medical Innovation

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    The Biden administration's proposal to reinterpret the Bayh-Dole Act and allow the government to claw back patents when it determines that a commercialized product's price is too high would discourage private investment in important research and development, says Ken Thorpe at the Rollins School of Public Health.

  • A Post-Mortem Analysis Of Stroock's Demise

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    After the dissolution of 147-year-old firm Stroock late last year shook up the legal world, a post-mortem analysis of the data reveals a long list of warning signs preceding the firm’s collapse — and provides some insight into how other firms might avoid the same disastrous fate, says Craig Savitzky at Leopard Solutions.

  • How DOD Can Improve Flexibility Under Proposed Cyber Rule

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    The U.S. Department of Defense should carefully address some of the more nuanced aspects of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program to avoid unintended consequences, specifically the proposal to severely limit contractor use of plans of actions and milestones, say Joshua Duvall at Maynard Nexsen and Sandeep Kathuria at L3Harris Technologies.

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling Helps Clarify When Gov't Clawback Is Timely

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    The Federal Circuit’s examination of claims accrual in a January decision that allows the Defense Contract Management Agency to pursue overpayment claims under a cost-reimbursement contract serves as a reminder that the government can lose such claims by waiting too long to file, say Evan Sherwood and Peter Hutt at Covington.

  • Preparing For DOJ's Data Analytics Push In FCPA Cases

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    After the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent announcement that it will leverage data analytics in Foreign Corrupt Practice Act investigations and prosecutions, companies will need to develop a compliance strategy that likewise implements data analytics to get ahead of enforcement risks, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Considering The Logical Extremes Of Your Legal Argument

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    Recent oral arguments in the federal election interference case against former President Donald Trump highlighted the age-old technique of extending an argument to its logical limit — a principle that is still important for attorneys to consider in preparing their cases, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • How 3 New Laws Change Calif. Nonprofits' Legal Landscape

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    Legislation that went into effect on Jan. 1 should be welcomed by California’s nonprofit organizations, which may now receive funding more quickly, rectify past noncompliance more easily and have greater access to the states’ security funding program, say Casey Williams and Brett Overby at Liebert Cassidy.

  • ChristianaCare Settlement Reveals FCA Pitfalls For Hospitals

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    ChristianaCare's False Claims Act settlement in December is the first one based on a hospital allegedly providing private physicians with free services in the form of hospital-employed clinicians and provides important compliance lessons as the government ramps up scrutiny of compensation arrangements, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Series

    Coaching High School Wrestling Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Coaching my son’s high school wrestling team has been great fun, but it’s also demonstrated how a legal career can benefit from certain experiences, such as embracing the unknown, studying the rules and engaging with new people, says Richard Davis at Maynard Nexsen.

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