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Government Contracts
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October 30, 2024
4th Circ. Affirms Soldier's Loss Against Fluor Over Bombing
A split Fourth Circuit panel on Wednesday affirmed the dismissal of a soldier's lawsuit against Fluor Corp. over injuries he sustained in a 2016 suicide bombing in Afghanistan, holding the suit's state tort claims are preempted by a "combatant activities" exception in federal law.
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October 30, 2024
Prison Phone Co. GTL Gets OK On $17M Price-Fix Deal
Prison phone company Global*Tel Link Corp will pay $17 million to escape claims that it colluded with two other companies to inflate the cost of calls made from inside U.S. prisons after a Maryland federal judge gave the deal her preliminary seal of approval Wednesday afternoon.
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October 30, 2024
Ariz. Tribe Will Get Back 3,200 Acres In US Land Exchange
The Yavapai-Apache Nation will receive 3,200 acres of its ancestral homelands in exchange for six parcels of land located within four national forests in Arizona as part of an agreement with the U.S. National Forest Service and Department of Agriculture that has been decades in the making.
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October 30, 2024
AIG Tells Del. Justices Texas Medicaid Case 'Steeped In Fraud'
An attorney for insurers who brought a mid-case appeal in a tangled suit focused on a Texas Medicaid claims processor's battles over its alleged errors and omissions in orthodontia billings told Delaware's Supreme Court Wednesday that the original case was "steeped in fraud" and propped up by negligence claims.
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October 30, 2024
Holtec Wins $6.9M Over Gov't's Failure To Store Nuclear Fuel
Nuclear plant operator Holtec Palisades LLC has been granted $6.9 million in damages after a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge found the federal government had breached an agreement to store spent nuclear fuel at the company's Michigan facility.
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October 30, 2024
Gov't Contracts Of The Month: Uranium And Missile Detection
Over the past month, the Biden administration advanced plans to secure the nuclear energy supply chain with $3.5 billion worth of uranium enrichment contracts and added $1.8 billion to its next-generation missile detection program. Here are Law360's most note-worthy government contracts for October 2024.
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October 30, 2024
3rd Circ. Vacates, Remands Philly Union Rule Suit
The Third Circuit revived a suit by a group of contractors against Philadelphia and its mayor's office over the city's former policy requiring that companies working on public projects be members of certain designated unions, ruling that those contractors still have standing for injuries that arose while the rule was enforced.
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October 29, 2024
'Breathtaking' Pentagon Leak Merits 16 Years, Feds Say
Prosecutors urged a federal judge on Tuesday to sentence a former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman to more than 16 years in prison for posting top secret military documents to the social media platform Discord, calling the crimes a historic and "breathtaking" betrayal of national security.
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October 29, 2024
NYC Mayoral Straw Donor Scheme Sees Another Guilty Plea
A bookkeeper enmeshed in a straw donor scheme to benefit New York City Mayor Eric Adams' 2021 campaign copped to a violation on Tuesday as part of a deal with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, effectively closing out the case.
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October 29, 2024
6th Circ. Judge Doubts Airport Funding Made It Federal Agent
A Sixth Circuit judge on Tuesday said he saw "problems" with a Michigan airport's argument that federal grants had enough requirements to make the airport effectively a federal officer, suggesting it cannot litigate a suit over its PFAS-containing firefighting foam in federal court.
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October 29, 2024
GAO Says Space Force Right To Deny Inmarsat Satellite Deal
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has denied a protest from satellite communications contractor Inmarsat over the U.S. Space Force's award of a $114.6 million contract for Ku-band satellite bandwidth and equipment, ruling that the government was justified in finding Inmarsat's proposal technically unacceptable.
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October 29, 2024
Ex-ComEd GC Calls Madigan's Interest In Law Firm 'Strange'
A Jenner & Block LLP attorney and former Commonwealth Edison general counsel testified Tuesday that he found it "strange" to read ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan was interested in the granular details of the utility's negotiations with Chicago law firm Reyes Kurson. Madigan's counsel, however, appeared to suggest a confidant and co-defendant had name-dropped the speaker in 2016 without actually talking to him.
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October 29, 2024
DOD Says Boeing Overcharged For Cargo Plane Spare Parts
The Department of Defense's Office of the Inspector General has issued a report finding that the Air Force overpaid about $1 million for spare parts in a contract with Boeing for C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.
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October 29, 2024
BOEM Holds Gulf Of Maine Wind Lease Sale
An offshore wind lease sale held Tuesday for the Gulf of Maine saw two provisional winners for four lease areas with the potential to power some 2.3 million homes, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
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October 29, 2024
Kasowitz Defense Tech Trio Joins Pillsbury In DC
As investment in government contracts, defense, technology and cyber deals continues to increase, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP has hired a trio of policy experts to its government law and strategies team in Washington to assist with lobbying support of U.S. allied-owned defense companies and other clients.
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October 28, 2024
DC Circ. Won't Revisit Quinn Emanuel's $486M Award Fight
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP lost its bid to get the D.C. Circuit to reconsider its decision in a dispute over the firm's authority to represent a port operating in a long-running legal spat with the Republic of Djibouti, according to an order issued Monday by a divided panel of judges.
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October 28, 2024
Gov't Says No Duty To Pay $69M In COVID Testing Claims
The Health Resources and Services Administration has urged the Court of Federal Claims to toss a lawsuit alleging the agency owes a laboratory $69 million in unpaid claims under a COVID-19 program for the uninsured, saying there was no contractual duty to pay.
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October 28, 2024
NASA Says Sensor Co.'s Contract Breach Case Should Fail
NASA has said the U.S. Court of Federal Claims should throw out a sensor business's breach of contract suit over commercialization and licensing deals related to patented NASA technology, saying certain milestones couldn't be reached under the pact.
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October 28, 2024
Flint Bellwether Delayed On Eve Of Trial, Again
A Michigan federal judge delayed Monday a bellwether trial set to determine if a water engineering firm was professionally negligent for its role in the Flint water crisis one day before jury selection was scheduled to begin and without explanation.
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October 28, 2024
Pennsylvania Judge Yanks Delaware River Port Approvals
A Pennsylvania federal judge ruled Monday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "arbitrarily and capriciously departed from its own procedures" in authorizing plans for a new port on the Delaware River in Delaware, downriver from Philadelphia, ordering the agency to conduct a closer review of the project.
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October 28, 2024
Gov't Defends GSA's Ohio Office Lease Award
The federal government has urged the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to swat down a bid protest from a company claiming the General Services Administration unfairly awarded a 15-year office lease in Ohio to another company.
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October 28, 2024
Feds Defend DEI Monitor Provision In Boeing Plea Deal
The U.S. Department of Justice said it will consider diversity and inclusion when it picks an independent compliance monitor for The Boeing Co. under a proposed plea agreement in the company's criminal conspiracy case, reassuring a Texas federal judge that the selection process will be rigorous.
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October 25, 2024
Entergy Struggles To Challenge FERC Decision At DC Circ.
The D.C. Circuit is set to decide whether or not utility giant Entergy will be allowed to challenge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's rejection of a plan that would change capacity market rules, after finding that it would give Entergy too much market power.
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October 25, 2024
DC Circ. Could Nix OK Of $8M Equatorial Guinea Award
The D.C. Circuit on Friday appeared willing to consider nixing enforcement of an $8 million arbitral award against Equatorial Guinea issued in a dispute over an ill-fated hospital operating contract, even as the panel spent much of a hearing focusing on the impact of a decade-old U.S. Supreme Court decision.
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October 25, 2024
AT&T Unit Continues To Argue FCA Does Not Apply To E-Rate
Congress could have designed the E-rate program to be distributed by the government using its own money, but it didn't, and that's why reimbursements under the program don't qualify as claims under the False Claims Act, an AT&T subsidiary has told the U.S. Supreme Court.
Expert Analysis
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Bid Protest Spotlight: Mapping, Jurisdiction, Incumbency
In this month's bid protest roundup, Nicole Giles and Ethan Sterenfeld at MoFo discuss a decision from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and two from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which highlight how labor mapping, jurisdiction questions and incumbency bias can affect outcomes.
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Gov't Contractors Shouldn't Skip Steps In Rush To Adopt AI
Government contractors that may be tempted to deploy artificial intelligence in day-to-day operations like billing and data protection should first take time to consider and address the specific risks that come with using AI tools, say attorneys at Wiley.
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Lower Courts May Finally Be Getting The Memo After Ciminelli
A year after the U.S. Supreme Court again limited prosecutors' overbroad theories of fraud in Ciminelli v. U.S., early returns suggest that the message has at least partially landed with the lower courts, spotlighting lessons for defense counsel moving forward, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.
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After A Brief Hiccup, The 'Rocket Docket' Soars Back To No. 1
The Eastern District of Virginia’s precipitous 2022 fall from its storied rocket docket status appears to have been a temporary aberration, as recent statistics reveal that the court is once again back on top as the fastest federal civil trial court in the nation, says Robert Tata at Hunton.
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Recruitment Trends In Emerging Law Firm Frontiers
BigLaw firms are facing local recruitment challenges as they increasingly establish offices in cities outside of the major legal hubs, requiring them to weigh various strategies for attracting talent that present different risks and benefits, says Tom Hanlon at Buchanan Law.
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Atmospheric Rivers: Force Majeure Or Just A Rainy Day?
As atmospheric rivers pummel California with intense rainfall, flooding and landslides, agencies and contractors in the state struggling to manage projects may invoke force majeure — but as with all construction risk issues, the terms of the agreement govern, and relief may not always be available, say Kyle Hamilton and Corey Boock at Nossaman.
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Series
Glassblowing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
I never expected that glassblowing would strongly influence my work as an attorney, but it has taught me the importance of building a solid foundation for your work, learning from others and committing to a lifetime of practice, says Margaret House at Kalijarvi Chuzi.
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How Associates Can Build A Professional Image
As hybrid work arrangements become the norm in the legal industry, early-career attorneys must be proactive in building and maintaining a professional presence in both physical and digital settings, ensuring that their image aligns with their long-term career goals, say Lana Manganiello at Equinox Strategy Partners and Estelle Winsett at Estelle Winsett Professional Image Consulting.
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Firms Must Rethink How They Train New Lawyers In AI Age
As law firms begin to use generative artificial intelligence to complete lower-level legal tasks, they’ll need to consider new ways to train summer associates and early-career attorneys, keeping in mind the five stages of skill acquisition, says Liisa Thomas at Sheppard Mullin.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Always Be Closing
When a lawyer presents their case with the right propulsive structure throughout trial, there is little need for further argument after the close of evidence — and in fact, rehashing it all may test jurors’ patience — so attorneys should consider other strategies for closing arguments, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Wiretap Use In Cartel Probes Likely To Remain An Exception
Although the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division has recently signaled interest in wiretaps, the use of this technology to capture evidence of antitrust conspiracies and pursue monopolization as a criminal matter has been rare historically, and is likely to remain so, say Carsten Reichel and Will Conway at DLA Piper.
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The OIG Report: DOD Review May Cause Contractor Dilemmas
Given a recent Office of Inspector General report finding that the U.S. Department of Defense awarded billions of dollars in contracts without performing the requisite financial responsibility reviews, contractors should prepare for a lengthier, more burdensome process and the possibility of re-review, says Diana Shaw at Wiley.
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Series
Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer
There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.
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Litigation Inspiration: Attys Can Be Heroic Like Olympians
Although litigation won’t earn anyone an Olympic medal in Paris this summer, it can be worthy of the same lasting honor if attorneys exercise focused restraint — seeking both their clients’ interests and those of the court — instead of merely pursuing every advantage short of sanctionable conduct, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Biden Admin Proposals May Facilitate US, UK, Australia Trade
Recent proposals that create exceptions to U.S. export licensing requirements for defense trade with Australia and the U.K. would remove hurdles that have hindered trade among the three countries, and could enable smaller companies in the sector to greatly expand their trade horizons, say Keil Ritterpusch and Grace Welborn at Buchanan Ingersoll.