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Government Contracts
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March 15, 2024
Contractor's Single Claim For 2 Lost Trucks Enough, For Now
A contractor didn't need to separate the value of two trucks lost by the U.S. Army to get the military to pay for replacement vehicles, an appeals board said, rejecting the Army's arguments that the contractor should have filed two claims.
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March 15, 2024
Fla. Tribe Urges No Pause In Suit Over State's Water Power
The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida on Thursday urged a federal judge not to pause its lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that alleges the state was improperly awarded authority over a Clean Water Act permitting program.
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March 15, 2024
Cannabis Sellers Want $6M Fees Refunded From Mass. Town
A group of cannabis retailers are suing Great Barrington, Massachusetts, saying the town has illegally collected nearly $6 million in community impact fees, despite admitting in writing that the companies have caused virtually no costs to the town.
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March 14, 2024
Ex-LA Official Lied To Feds Immediately In Interview, Jury Told
An FBI agent told a California federal jury on Thursday in former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan's federal bribery trial that Chan lied to him during a 2018 interview immediately after he was warned that lying to the bureau is a crime.
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March 14, 2024
3D-Gun Info Group Loses Suit Over Publishing Blueprints
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims tossed an open-source gun group's lawsuit alleging the federal government failed to follow a 2018 settlement allowing the group to publish firearm blueprints, rejecting the group's contention that dismissing a final claim would be unfair.
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March 14, 2024
Lawmakers Secure $1.3B For Native American Housing
A record $1.34 billion will go toward Native American housing programs as part of an appropriations package passed by Congress, a $324 million increase over last year's funding.
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March 14, 2024
Feds Say Healthcare Ruling Could Upset Tribal Relationships
The federal government is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court's ruling that ordered Indian Health Services to reimburse millions in administrative healthcare costs, saying if the two tribes prevail in the litigation, it would upend 35 years of practice between the agency and its contracting tribes.
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March 14, 2024
Axon, Cities Fight Over Producing Material From FTC Case
Axon Enterprise is sparring with municipalities accusing the police equipment maker of monopolizing the Taser and body camera markets, with the local governments pushing for what Axon described as the "premature and improper" production of discovery from the Federal Trade Commission's since-abandoned case.
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March 14, 2024
DOD Contractors Raise Double Jeopardy Issues With Retrial
Two defense contractors asked a New Mexico federal court to bar prosecutors' evidence purportedly relating to a charge of conspiring to win small business contracts, saying the evidence actually relates to fraud charges for which they were already acquitted.
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March 14, 2024
Backers Of Colo. Wolf Release Can Defend State's Plan
Defenders of Wildlife and other conservation groups can participate in a lawsuit seeking to block the further reintroduction of gray wolves into the state of Colorado, after a federal judge on Thursday said the groups have different interests from government agencies defending decisions related to the plan.
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March 14, 2024
Mass. High Court Says Tufts Win In Tenure Case 'Premature'
Tenured professors at Tufts University whose salaries were slashed under a newly enacted requirement that they bring in at least half their income through research grants will have another chance to prove those pay cuts undermine academic freedom, Massachusetts' highest court said Thursday.
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March 14, 2024
Bechtel Missed Subcontractor Targets On Nuke Waste Project
Bechtel National Inc. failed its subcontracting obligations while building a federal nuclear waste plant at the Hanford site in Washington state, lapses that cost businesses up to $700 million in missed opportunities, according to a watchdog agency report released Thursday.
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March 14, 2024
Energy Dept. Floats $2.26B Loan For Nev. Lithium Project
The Biden administration is pitching a $2.26 billion loan to help fund lithium carbonate processing facilities at the controversial Thacker Pass mine in northern Nevada, saying they could support the production of as many as 800,000 electric vehicles a year.
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March 14, 2024
McDermott Eyes White Collar Growth With Orrick FCPA Pros
McDermott Will & Emery LLP announced Thursday the addition of a seven-partner team from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP that will focus on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the False Claims Act, saying it hired the team with an eye toward its white collar and government investigation capabilities.
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March 14, 2024
DOD's Weapons Monitoring In Iraq Fell Short, Watchdog Says
The U.S. Department of Defense failed to properly inspect and account for military equipment sent to Iraq to fight ISIS, raising the possibility of weapons going missing and falling into adversaries' hands, the department's internal watchdog said.
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March 13, 2024
GAO Backs $12.3M DISA Support Deal Despite Lower Quote
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has denied a business consultant company's protest of a $12.3 million Defense Information Systems Agency task order, backing the agency's decision not to choose the company despite its lower price quotation and same ratings as the awardee.
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March 13, 2024
Hospital Manager Cements $3.5M Gabon Arbitration Award
The Gabonese Republic must pay a $3.5 million arbitration award obtained by an Austrian healthcare management company, a D.C. federal judge ruled after the central African nation failed to appear in court.
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March 13, 2024
CoreCivic Beats Asylum-Seeker's Miscarriage Liability Suit
A California federal judge handed CoreCivic Inc. a win Tuesday in a negligence lawsuit filed by an El Salvadorian asylum-seeker who alleged she miscarried while detained at the prison giant's immigration detention center near the U.S.-Mexico border, finding there to be no triable factual dispute over whether she miscarried in custody.
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March 13, 2024
Hospital Operator Defends Releases In Ch. 11 Plan
California-based hospital operator Alecto Healthcare Services LLC asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge Wednesday to approve its small business Chapter 11 reorganization, saying it is not leaving money on the table by releasing potential clawback claims.
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March 13, 2024
Claims Court Lets $282M USPS Telematics Deal Protest Stand
A Federal Claims Court judge has refused to toss a fleet-tracking technology company's protest of a $281.8 million U.S. Postal Service deal for a vehicle telematics system, rejecting USPS' contention the company couldn't sue without first exhausting agency-level remedies.
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March 12, 2024
Lima Loses Bid To Duck $140M Arb. Awards In Highway Row
A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday refused to overturn $140 million in arbitral awards against the city of Lima, Peru, stemming from its dispute with a highway contractor, ruling that the contractor won those two awards "fair and square."
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March 12, 2024
Contractor Seeks Arbitration In $3M Guam Military Base Fight
An electrical contractor has petitioned a Guam federal court to order a California-Japanese joint venture that had hired it for a project to improve U.S. military facilities to arbitrate their dispute related to nearly $3 million in allegedly unpaid costs.
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March 12, 2024
Suncor Deal With Colo. Over Air Monitoring Gets Judge's OK
A Colorado state judge has approved a settlement agreement between Suncor and state air regulators over air quality monitoring around the oil and gas company's refinery near Denver.
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March 12, 2024
FEMA Claims Process Leaves NM Fire Victims Lost, Suit Says
Five New Mexico residents are suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency over its response to a massive 2022 fire, alleging it has created delay, confusion and ambiguity in the claims process for the fire's victims.
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March 12, 2024
2nd Circ. Revives Parts Of McKesson Whistleblower Suit
The Second Circuit on Tuesday revived parts of a lawsuit brought by a McKesson Corp. whistleblower who accuses the pharmaceutical company of a kickback scheme, finding that the lower court should reconsider the claims that were brought under state anti-kickback laws.
Expert Analysis
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Bracing For Rising Cyber-Related False Claims Act Scrutiny
Two recent cyber-related False Claims Act cases illustrate the vulnerability of government contractors, including universities, obliged to self-attest compliance with multiple controls, signal the importance of accurate internal controls and underline the benefits of self-disclosure, say Townsend Bourne and Nikole Snyder at Sheppard Mullin.
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Corporate Compliance Lessons From FirstEnergy Scandal
Fallout from a massive bribery scheme involving Ohio electric utility FirstEnergy and state officeholders — including the recent sentencing of two defendants — has critical corporate governance takeaways for companies and individuals seeking to influence government policymaking, say attorneys at Wilson Sonsini.
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Twitter Legal Fees Suit Offers Crash Course In Billing Ethics
X Corp.'s suit alleging that Wachtell grossly inflated its fees in the final days of Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition provides a case study in how firms should protect their reputations by hewing to ethical billing practices and the high standards for professional conduct that govern attorney-client relationships, says Lourdes Fuentes at Karta Legal.
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Self-Disclosure Lessons From Exemplary Corp. Resolutions
With scant examples of corporate resolutions in the wake of U.S. Department of Justice self-disclosure policy changes last fall, companies may glean helpful insights from three recent declination letters, as well as other governmental self-reporting regimes, say Lindsey Collins and Kate Rumsey at Sheppard Mullin.
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ABA's Money-Laundering Resolution Is A Balancing Act
While the American Bar Association’s recently passed resolution recognizes a lawyer's duty to discontinue representation that could facilitate money laundering and other fraudulent activity, it preserves, at least for now, the delicate balance of judicial, state-based regulation of the legal profession and the sanctity of the attorney-client relationship, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.
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8 Ways Life Sciences Cos. Can Adapt To The Social Media Era
As pharmaceutical and medical device companies harness the powerful promotion potential of social media, they must navigate legal, regulatory and reputational risks that can be particularly challenging due to the complex framework of rules that apply to the life sciences industry, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Bid Protest Spotlight: Unfair Advantage, Buy American Waiver
In this month's bid protest roundup, James Tucker at MoFo offers takeaways on one decision that considers unfair proposal development advantages in the context of an employee's access to nonpublic information in a prior federal government position, and another decision that reconsiders a contract award based on an inadequately supported waiver of Buy American Act restrictions.
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Prevailing Wage Rules Complicate Inflation Act Tax Incentives
Nicole Elliott and Timothy Taylor at Holland & Knight discuss the intersection between tax and labor newly created by the Inflation Reduction Act, and focus on aspects of recent U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of the Treasury rules that may catch tax-incentive seekers off guard.
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Law Firm Professional Development Steps To Thrive In AI Era
As generative artificial intelligence tools rapidly evolve, professional development leaders are instrumental in preparing law firms for the paradigm shifts ahead, and should consider three strategies to help empower legal talent with the skills required to succeed in an increasingly complex technological landscape, say Steve Gluckman and Anusia Gillespie at SkillBurst Interactive.
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Industry Takeaways From OMB's Final Buy America Guidance
The Office of Management and Budget's recently released guidance on "Buy America" requirements for federal infrastructure projects provides clarity in certain areas but fails to address troublesome inconsistencies with state laws and international trade agreements, so manufacturers and suppliers will need to tread carefully as agencies implement the changes, say Amy Hoang and Sarah Barney at Seyfarth Shaw.
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HHS Neuromonitoring Advisory May Have Broad Relevance
The Health Department Office of Inspector General's recent advisory opinion rejecting a neuromonitoring service's proposal for a shell arrangement isn't surprising, but it could be a harbinger of more warnings against problematic joint venture arrangements to come, says Mary Kohler at Kohler Health Law.
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The Basics Of Being A Knowledge Management Attorney
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Michael Lehet at Ogletree Deakins discusses the role of knowledge management attorneys at law firms, the common tasks they perform and practical tips for lawyers who may be considering becoming one.
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The Pros And Cons Of The Senate's DOD Data Rights Plan
The Senate's latest defense spending bill stands to benefit big business by clarifying that the government should not automatically obtain unlimited rights in certain contractor data, but the reduction of other protections elsewhere may put small businesses at risk, say Tyler Evans and Anna Menzel at Steptoe & Johnson.
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A Look At The Tribal Health Reimbursements Circuit Split
A circuit split regarding whether Native American tribes are entitled to contract support costs on health care services paid by third-party revenues sets the stage for potential review by the U.S. Supreme Court, and could result in the Indian Health Service paying hundreds of millions more in much-needed funding to tribal health programs, say Geoffrey Strommer and Steve Osborne at Hobbs Straus.
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SBA 8(a) Contractors Must Prepare To Reestablish Eligibility
A Tennessee federal court's recent decision in Ultima Services v. U.S. Department of Agriculture has massive implications for the Small Business Administration's 8(a) Business Development Program, whose participants will soon need to reestablish their status as socially disadvantaged, say Edward DeLisle and Andrés Vera at Thompson Hine.