Aerospace & Defense

  • August 23, 2024

    Fla. IT Worker Pleads Guilty To Working As Chinese Agent

    An information technology worker pled guilty to working as an agent for the Chinese government in Florida federal court Friday, telling prosecutors that he'd worked as a "cooperative contact" for the Chinese since 2012, even tracking Chinese dissidents within the U.S.

  • August 23, 2024

    VA Says It Properly Assessed Bids For $22B IT Deal

    The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has told the Court of Federal Claims that it had no obligation to consider potential future conflicts of interest involving contractors added to a $22.3 billion information technology contract, pushing back against allegations that it should have disqualified awardees.

  • August 23, 2024

    737 Max Families Spurn DOJ, Boeing's 'Cozy' Plea Deal

    Families of victims of the 737 Max 8 crashes told a Texas federal judge on Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice's "cozy" plea agreement with Boeing must be rejected because it's based on misleading facts and shoddy math that overlook the tragic deaths of 346 people.

  • August 23, 2024

    Biden White House Unleashes More Sanctions On Russia

    The Biden administration issued a wave of sanctions against Russia on Friday — the eve of Ukrainian Independence Day — targeting 400 entities and individuals who are allegedly helping Russia avoid the sanctions imposed in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

  • August 23, 2024

    Federal Gov't Hits Georgia Tech With Cybersecurity FCA Suit

    The federal government has hit the Georgia Institute of Technology with a False Claims Act suit accusing the university of knowingly failing to comply with required cybersecurity standards while working on federal defense contracts.

  • August 23, 2024

    Judge Won't Restrict Access To RTX Trade Secrets Trial

    Defense contractor RTX Corp. won't be able to bar non-U.S. citizens from a trade secrets trial slated to get underway Tuesday, but exhibits, such as diagrams, will not be made visible to observers in the courtroom, a Massachusetts federal judge ordered.

  • August 23, 2024

    Canada Mining Biz Seeks US Listing Via $589M SPAC Merger

    Canadian rare-earth miner Tactical Resources Corp. plans to go public in the U.S. by merging with special purpose acquisition company Plum Acquisition III Corp. at an estimated value of $589 million, both parties announced on Friday, through a deal guided by four law firms.

  • August 23, 2024

    Patent Case Against USPTO Mimics Failed Suit, Feds Say

    The federal government has moved to toss a suit alleging that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's website infringes patents covering the idea of two-factor authorization, arguing that a patent in the same "family" was thrown out in 2016 by a different court that said it contained "nothing inventive."

  • August 23, 2024

    The Biggest Enviro Policy Moves Of 2024: Midyear Report

    As the Biden administration hurtles toward the end of its term, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been hustling important final rules out its doors, including regulations for power plant greenhouse gas emissions, chemicals and automobiles.

  • August 22, 2024

    9th Circ. Revives Military Bias Claims Against Alaska Airlines

    The Ninth Circuit on Thursday revived a class action alleging Alaska Airlines illegally denied accrued vacation and sick time to pilots on military assignments, saying the case now has the benefit of a decision from the court in a similar case involving the airline.

  • August 22, 2024

    GAO Backs Protest Over Navy Sonar Equipment Deal

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office has backed a protest over corrective action on a U.S. Navy solicitation for sonar equipment, saying the Navy failed to consider whether a restrictive term added to the deal made it inappropriate as a small business contract.

  • August 22, 2024

    Tech Firm Says DOD Was Ad-Hoc With Chinese Military Label

    Lidar technology firm Hesai argued Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Defense has not proved Hesai has connections to the Chinese military as the firm strives to get taken off a list denoting them as such.

  • August 22, 2024

    Air Force Cancels $12B Nuclear Missile Program Support Deal

    The U.S. Air Force has canceled a long-pending $12 billion solicitation for nuclear missile program support services in the wake of a protest decision finding that the Air Force didn't properly assess awardee Guidehouse LLP's contract proposal.

  • August 22, 2024

    Nadine Menendez's Bribery Trial Delayed Until 2025

    The bribery trial of former U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's wife is delayed until at least January because she is being treated for cancer, a New York federal judge ruled Thursday.

  • August 22, 2024

    Feds Accuse NYC Man Of Acting As Chinese Agent

    Manhattan federal prosecutors have accused a naturalized U.S. citizen of acting as an agent of the People's Republic of China and relaying intelligence to the Chinese government.

  • August 22, 2024

    Latvian Faces Charges For Alleged Role In Smuggling Scheme

    A Latvian national accused of helping Russians evade U.S. export controls issued after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war and obtain U.S. avionics equipment has been extradited to the U.S., the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

  • August 22, 2024

    Army Adviser Gets 12 Years For Scamming Gold Star Families

    A former New Jersey financial counselor with the U.S. Army and a major in the U.S. Army Reserve was sentenced to 151 months in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding Gold Star families and other related crimes, the U.S. attorney's office announced.

  • August 21, 2024

    IBM Incentivizes Biased Hiring, Ousted White Male Worker Says

    IBM financially incentivizes and pressures corporate leadership to hire people based on their race and gender, according to a new suit filed in Michigan federal court by a former IBM employee who claims he was unlawfully fired for being a "double whammy" white male.

  • August 21, 2024

    RTX Wants Trade Secrets Trial Closed To 'Non-US Persons'

    Defense contractor RTX is fighting with a manufacturer over whether a trade secrets trial next week over the design of a mechanical bearing used in the U.S. military's "StormBreaker" bomb should be closed off to all "non-U.S. persons."

  • August 21, 2024

    Alaska Air Seeks Clarification In Rogue Pilot Case

    Alaska Airlines has urged a Washington state judge to clear up his decision to partially dismiss a lawsuit alleging an off-duty crew member tried to crash a flight in October, saying the ruling doesn't clearly state the passengers suing the company can no longer pursue claims rooted in federal aviation safety regulations.

  • August 21, 2024

    VA Tells High Court Veterans' PTSD Claims Correctly Rejected

    The federal government urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to overturn decisions denying two veterans' claims for post-traumatic stress disorder benefits, saying lower courts properly refused to reconsider evidence whether the vets deserved the benefit of the doubt.

  • August 21, 2024

    500,000 Camp Lejeune Cases Filed With The Navy

    The federal government and Camp Lejeune litigants have told the North Carolina federal court overseeing claims over contaminated drinking water at the Marine base that there have been nearly 550,000 administrative claims filed with the U.S. Navy.

  • August 21, 2024

    Judge Bars DOD Policy Blocking HIV-Positive Enlistees

    A Virginia federal judge has struck down a U.S. Department of Defense policy barring HIV-positive people from joining the military, saying the DOD had failed to take current scientific evidence on HIV treatment and transmission into account.

  • August 21, 2024

    US Army Escapes Nebraska Tribe's Repatriation Suit

    A federal district court judge won't order the U.S. Army to repatriate the remains of two Native American children from a boarding school cemetery in Pennsylvania, saying provisions of a law designed to protect Indigenous burial sites don't apply to the 180 children entombed there for more than a century.

  • August 21, 2024

    Split 5th Circ. Revives Cameroonian Anglophone's Asylum Bid

    A split Fifth Circuit has revived a Cameroonian nurse's asylum bid, saying in a published opinion that the Board of Immigration Appeals disregarded evidence he offered to prove that the Cameroonian military wanted him dead for purportedly being an English-speaking separatist.

Expert Analysis

  • 10 Areas To Watch In Aerospace And Defense Contracting Law

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    The near future holds a number of key areas to watch in aerospace and defense contracting law, ranging from dramatic developments in the space industry to recent National Defense Authorization Act updates, which are focused on U.S. leadership in emerging technologies, say Joseph Berger and Chip Purcell at Thompson Hine.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Independence Is Imperative This Election Year

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    As the next election nears, the judges involved in the upcoming trials against former President Donald Trump increasingly face political pressures and threats of violence — revealing the urgent need to safeguard judicial independence and uphold the rule of law, says Benes Aldana at the National Judicial College.

  • How Harsher Penalties For AI Crimes May Work In Practice

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    With recent pronouncements from the U.S. Department of Justice that prosecutors may seek sentencing enhancements for crimes committed using artificial intelligence, defense counsel should understand how the sentencing guidelines and statutory factors will come into play, says Jennie VonCannon at Crowell & Moring.

  • Document Retention Best Practices To Lower Litigation Risks

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    As new technologies emerge and terabytes of data can be within the purview of a single discovery request, businesses small and large should take four document management steps to effectively minimize risks of litigation and discovery sanctions long before litigation ensues, says Kimbrilee Weber at Norris McLaughlin.

  • Series

    Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.

  • Compliance Steps After ABA White Collar Crime Conference

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    Senior law enforcement officials’ statements this month at the American Bar Association's white collar crime conference suggest government enforcement efforts this year will increasingly focus on whistleblower incentives, artificial intelligence and data protection, and companies will need to update their compliance programs accordingly, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents

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    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • What 2 Years Of Ukraine-Russia Conflict Can Teach Cos.

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    A few key legal lessons for the global business community since Russia's invasion of Ukraine could help protect global commerce in times of future conflict, including how to respond to disparate trade restrictions and sanctions, navigate war-related contract disputes, and protect against heightened cybersecurity risks, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Risks Of Nonmutual Offensive Collateral Estoppel In MDLs

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    After the Supreme Court declined to review the Sixth Circuit's ruling in the E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. personal injury litigation, nonmutual offensive collateral estoppel could show up in more MDLs, and transform the loss of a single MDL bellwether trial into a de facto classwide decision that binds thousands of other MDL cases, say Chantale Fiebig and Luke Sullivan at Weil Gotshal.

  • Wesco Ch. 11 Ruling Marks Shift In Uptier Claim Treatment

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    A Texas bankruptcy court’s recent decision in In re: Wesco Aircraft Holdings leaves nonparticipating creditors with a road map to litigate to judgment non-pro rata liability management transactions, and foreshadows that bankruptcy courts may no longer be a friendly forum for these types of claims, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Takeaways From Groundbreaking Data Transfer Order

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    A recent first-of-its-kind executive order and related proposed rulemaking lay the groundwork for important outbound U.S. data protections, but they may have unintended consequences related to the types of data and the subjects within their scope, say attorneys at Kirkland.

  • FARA Enforcement May Soon Be In The Halls Of Higher Ed

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    Given Congress’ increased attention to rising foreign influence on U.S. college campuses, the U.S. Department of Justice may soon turn the Foreign Agents Registration Act spotlight on educational institutions and groups, which will need to review their possible obligations under the statute, says Tessa Capeloto at Wiley.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

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    Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.

  • How The FAA Is Embracing Simplified Flight Controls

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    The Federal Aviation Administration's openness to approving simplified flight controls as part of its forthcoming refresh of regulations governing light-sport aircraft and sport pilot certificates is valuable and welcome — and the same approach can be brought to general aviation aircraft, says Paul Alp at Adams and Reese.

  • Making The Pitch For A Civil Resolution In A Criminal Case

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    Even without the depth of visibility into prosecutorial decision making offered by special counsel Robert Hur’s recently released report, defense counsel may be able to make the case for civil resolutions of criminal investigations while minimizing a potential negative response from prosecutors to such an argument, says Bill Athanas at Bradley Arant.

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