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Government Contracts
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January 23, 2025
Fox Raises Specter Of Corruption In LA's Smartmatic Contract
Fox News has filed a public records lawsuit suggesting that Los Angeles County officials may have taken bribes to award a 2020 election contract to Smartmatic, the voting technology company currently pursuing a $2.7 billion defamation suit over Fox's coverage of that election.
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January 23, 2025
DOD Watchdog Finds Audits Didn't Follow Required Standards
A U.S. Department of Defense watchdog has said a limited review of incurred-cost audits completed by commercial, nonfederal auditors brought on to help clear a backlog found the auditors did not fully comply with federal government auditing standards in about two-thirds of the audits.
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January 23, 2025
GAO Says DOD Should Improve Modular Open Systems Use
The U.S. Department of Defense is not properly considering a modular open systems approach to designing weapons systems, despite recent legislation requiring it do so "to the maximum extent practicable," the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday.
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January 23, 2025
Ex-Police Chief Defamed Protester With Gang Claim, Suit Says
Atlanta's ex-police chief faces a renewed defamation suit over comments he made during a 2020 press conference to address arrests made at a Black Lives Matter protest, in which he allegedly accused one arrestee of being a violent gang member.
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January 23, 2025
Home Health Agency Operator Gets 12 Years For $100M Fraud
The former operator of a Massachusetts home healthcare agency convicted of fraud last summer has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $100 million in restitution to the state's Medicaid program.
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January 23, 2025
FTC Chair's 1st Act: Ending 'Scourge' Of DEI
Andrew N. Ferguson made his first public act as the Federal Trade Commission's new Republican chairman Wednesday by ordering the end of all agency diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and declaring that the "scourge" of DEI is over at the FTC.
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January 23, 2025
Senate Energy Committee Greenlights Energy, Interior Picks
A U.S. Senate energy panel on Thursday advanced President Donald Trump's nominees to lead the U.S. Departments of Energy and the Interior, setting them up for confirmation by the full Senate.
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January 23, 2025
Calif. Appeals Court Backs Apprentice Work Regulations
A California appeals court refused to reinstate a challenge from several employer associations seeking to strike down new regulations governing how apprentices can spend their time working, saying the California Apprenticeship Council was in the clear to promulgate the new rules.
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January 22, 2025
'Unicorn Prosecution' Could Upend Legal Practice, Court Told
Brown & Connery LLP partner William Tambussi told a New Jersey state judge Wednesday that the entire practice of law in the Garden State rests on his impending decision on the charges against him in the state's sweeping racketeering case targeting power broker George E. Norcross III, arguing that a lawyer has never been prosecuted for routine legal work.
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January 22, 2025
Vanda Loses Takings Clause Arguments In Trade Secret Fight
A Court of Federal Claims judge has held that specifications on how fast Vanda Pharmaceuticals' drugs dissolve do not count as property interest under the Fifth Amendment, handing a loss to the pharmaceutical company in its trade secrets case against the federal government.
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January 22, 2025
GAO Says Army Corps Reasonably Rejected Contractor's Bid
The Government Accountability Office has rejected a Georgia-based construction contractor's challenge to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' denial of its building repair contract proposal, saying the agency reasonably deemed the contractor's project labor agreement to be insufficient.
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January 22, 2025
$1.3B India Telecom Award Can't Be Enforced, Justices Told
A commercial division of India's space agency is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm a Ninth Circuit ruling refusing to enforce a $1.3 billion arbitral award issued to an Indian satellite communications company, arguing that the circuit court's determination of technical jurisdictional issues was correct.
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January 22, 2025
Ga. Tech Says Gov't Hasn't Shown Cybersecurity False Claims
The Georgia Institute of Technology has pushed for dismissal of a False Claims Act suit accusing it of knowingly violating U.S. Department of Defense cybersecurity standards, saying the government hadn't adequately explained how those rules apply to the university.
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January 22, 2025
Sotomayor Halts 2nd Circ. Ruling In Landmark Graft Case
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor halted a decision from the Second Circuit on Wednesday that would have set up a second trial against four men whose convictions were overturned in a landmark 2023 high court ruling in which the justices narrowed certain types of public corruption cases.
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January 22, 2025
Feds Trim Spine-Implant Kickback Case Ahead Of Trial
A Massachusetts federal judge has granted a motion by prosecutors to drop bribery charges against a maker of spinal implant devices and whittle down the case against two of its former executives.
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January 22, 2025
Connell Foley Fights DQ Bid In Investment Firm's Bias Suit
A group of current and former New Jersey state officials blasted a motion to disqualify their counsel at Connell Foley LLP in a discrimination suit from a Black-owned investment firm in New Jersey federal court, calling the move a frivolous and bad faith stalling tactic.
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January 22, 2025
Judge Cans Biden Order Supporting Union Contractors
A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge has invalidated a 2022 executive order by then-President Joe Biden requiring contractors to work with unions to be considered for federal construction projects over $35 million, saying the mandate "stifles competition."
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January 22, 2025
Trump Defangs Labor Dept.'s Contractor Bias Watchdog
President Donald Trump eliminated on Tuesday a core legal authority from the 1960s that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs used to stop federal contractors from discriminating against workers, part of a broader salvo against diversity, equity and inclusion programs in employment.
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January 21, 2025
What Gov't Contractors Must Know About Trump Exec Actions
President Donald Trump's flood of executive orders following his inauguration included a number of measures targeted at or broadly affecting federal contractors, such as lifting Biden administration antidiscrimination and climate change-related requirements and restarting border wall construction.
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January 21, 2025
Navy, Tetra Tech Strike $97M Deal Over Navy Cleanup Work
The U.S. Navy and a Tetra Tech unit have reached two settlements amounting to $97 million, resolving claims the subsidiary billed the Navy for radiation remediation services at a former Navy shipyard in San Francisco that it did not actually perform.
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January 21, 2025
Colo. City Blocking Fiber Co. For Own Benefit, Suit Says
Colorado's second-biggest city has been denying a fiber internet company access to its utility easements because it doesn't want it competing with the city's own internet service, Metronet claims in a new lawsuit.
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January 21, 2025
Trump Installs New Prisons Chief, Revives Private Facilities
President Donald Trump made sweeping changes to the criminal justice system in his first hours in office, including replacing the Federal Bureau of Prisons director brought in under the Biden administration and ending former President Joe Biden's plan to phase out privately run federal prisons.
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January 21, 2025
CNN Inks Post-Verdict Deal In Contractor's Defamation Suit
CNN settled a defamation lawsuit just hours after a Florida jury awarded $5 million in compensatory damages to a U.S. Navy veteran turned private defense contractor who sued the network for defamation over a report on the evacuation of Afghans in 2021.
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January 21, 2025
Water Main Co. Will Pay $1M After Connecticut Fish Kill
A water main cleaning company has waived indictment and admitted to a federal charge that it discharged a pollutant into a Connecticut brook while refurbishing a culvert pipe in 2019, causing the deaths of more than 150 fish, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
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January 21, 2025
Victors In Landmark Graft Case Want 2nd Top Court Review
The defendants who won a landmark 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that narrowed certain types of corruption prosecutions have asked the justices to intervene in their case again, claiming the Second Circuit had wrongly allowed the government to pursue new trials based on a different theory of fraud.
Expert Analysis
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Navigating Restrictions Following Biotech Bill House Passage
Ahead of the BIOSECURE Act’s potential enactment, companies that obtain equipment from certain Chinese biotechnology companies should consider whether the act would restrict their ability to enter into contracts with the U.S. government and what steps they might take in response, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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SEC Settlement Holds Important Pay-To-Play Lessons
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent fine of an investment adviser, whose new hire made a campaign contribution within a crucial lookback period, is a seasonable reminder for public fund managers to ensure their processes thoroughly screen all associates for even minor violations of the SEC’s strict pay-to-play rule, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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7 Takeaways For Companies After Justices' Bribery Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Snyder v. U.S. decision this summer, holding that a federal law does not criminalize after-the-fact gratuities made to public officials, raises some key considerations for companies that engage with state, local and tribal governments, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners
Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners — though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
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Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics
Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.
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It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers
Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.
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Vertex Suit Highlights Issues For Pharma Fertility Support
Vertex Pharmaceuticals' recent lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' interpretation of the Anti-Kickback Statute is influenced by a number of reproductive rights and health equity issues that the Office of Inspector General should address more concretely, including in vitro fertilization and fertility preservation programs, says Mary Kohler at Kohler Health Law.
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SBA Proposal Materially Alters Contractor Recertification
The Small Business Administration's new proposed rule on recertification affects eligibility for set-aside contracts, significantly alters the landscape for mergers and acquisitions in the government contracts industry, and could have other unintended downstream consequences, says Sam Finnerty at PilieroMazza.
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Series
After Chevron: Conservation Rule Already Faces Challenges
The Bureau of Land Management's interpretation of land "use" in its Conservation and Landscape Health Rule is contrary to the agency's past practice and other Federal Land Policy and Management Act provisions, leaving the rule exposed in four legal challenges that may carry greater force in the wake of Loper Bright, say Stacey Bosshardt and Stephanie Regenold at Perkins Coie.
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A Preview Of AI Priorities Under The Next President
For the first time in a presidential election, both of the leading candidates and their parties have been vocal about artificial intelligence policy, offering clues on the future of regulation as AI continues to advance and congressional action continues to stall, say attorneys at Mintz.
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11 Patent Cases To Watch At Fed. Circ. And High Court
As we head into fall, there are 11 patent cases to monitor, touching on a range of issues that could affect patent strategy, such as biotech innovation, administrative rulemaking and patent eligibility, say Edward Lanquist and Wesley Barbee at Baker Donelson.
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How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations
Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.
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Bid Protest Spotlight: Rule Of Two, Post Award, Cost Request
In this month's bid protest roundup, Alissandra McCann at MoFo examines three recent decisions from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, offering distinct reminders for contractors challenging solicitations while an agency takes corrective action, pursuing post-award bid protests and filing timely cost reimbursement requests.
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ESA Ruling May Jeopardize Gulf Of Mexico Drilling Operations
A Maryland federal court's recent decision in Sierra Club v. National Marine Fisheries Service, vacating key Endangered Species Act analyses of oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, may create a gap in guidance that could expose operators to enforcement risk and even criminal liability, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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Avoiding Corporate Political Activity Pitfalls This Election Year
As Election Day approaches, corporate counsel should be mindful of the complicated rules around companies engaging in political activities, including super PAC contributions, pay-to-play prohibitions and foreign agent restrictions, say attorneys at Covington.