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Government Contracts
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January 24, 2025
5th Circ. Upholds Tossing Medicare Rate Policy Challenge
A Fifth Circuit panel said it agrees with a Texas federal judge that a lawsuit brought by four anesthesia practices claiming a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services policy will cost them $4 million in reduced reimbursements is statutorily barred.
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January 24, 2025
GSA Taps Ex-BlackRock Atty As New GC
The General Services Administration has tapped Russell McGranahan, the former general counsel of Focus Financial Partners who held legal roles at BlackRock and in private practice for almost 30 years, as its next general counsel, according to a Friday announcement.
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January 23, 2025
Limits On Biden's Contracting Power Could Also Hinder Trump
A Trump administration order barring federal contractors from engaging in diversity, equity and inclusion programs could face court challenges, following the path of decisions rejecting the Biden administration's arguments it had statutory authority for minimum wage and vaccine requirements.
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January 23, 2025
4th Circ. Reads Kickback Law Broadly In Loss For Big Pharma
The Fourth Circuit on Thursday affirmed a Virginia federal judge's ruling against a pharmaceuticals industry-backed charity looking to weaken the Anti-Kickback Statute, holding that a proposed program for helping patients cover the cost of drugs could indeed constitute a quid pro quo.
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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.
Expert Analysis
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Whistleblowers Must Note 5 Key Differences Of DOJ Program
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recently unveiled whistleblower awards program diverges in key ways from similar programs at other agencies, and individuals must weigh these differences and look first to programs with stronger, proven protections before blowing the whistle, say Stephen Kohn and Geoff Schweller at Kohn Kohn.
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What NFL Draft Picks Have In Common With Lateral Law Hires
Nearly half of law firm lateral hires leave within a few years — a failure rate that is strikingly similar to the performance of NFL quarterbacks drafted in the first round — in part because evaluators focus too heavily on quantifiable metrics and not enough on a prospect's character traits, says Howard Rosenberg at Baretz+Brunelle.
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Foreign Threat Actors Pose Novel Risks To US Tech Cos.
A recent bulletin jointly issued by several U.S. intelligence agencies warns technology startups and the venture capital community about national security risks posed by foreign threat actors, so companies interested in raising foreign capital should watch for several red flags, say Robert Friedman and Jacob Marco at Holland & Knight.
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Replacing The Stigma Of Menopause With Law Firm Support
A large proportion of the workforce is forced to pull the brakes on their career aspirations because of the taboo surrounding menopause and a lack of consistent support, but law firms can initiate the cultural shift needed by formulating thoughtful workplace policies, says Barbara Hamilton-Bruce at Simmons & Simmons.
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Planning Law Firm Content Calendars: What, When, Where
During the slower month of August, law firms should begin working on their 2025 content calendars, planning out a content creation and distribution framework that aligns with the firm’s objectives and maintains audience engagement throughout the year, says Jessica Kaplan at Legally Penned.
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Series
Playing Golf Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Golf can positively affect your personal and professional life well beyond the final putt, and it’s helped enrich my legal practice by improving my ability to build lasting relationships, study and apply the rules, face adversity with grace, and maintain my mental and physical well-being, says Adam Kelly at Venable.
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Law Firms Should Move From Reactive To Proactive Marketing
Most law firm marketing and business development teams operate in silos, leading to an ad hoc, reactive approach, but shifting to a culture of proactive planning — beginning with comprehensive campaigns — can help firms effectively execute their broader business strategy, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.
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3 High Court Rulings May Shape Health Org. Litigation Tactics
Three separate decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court's most recent term — Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy — will likely strengthen healthcare organizations' ability to affirmatively sue executive agencies to challenge regulations governing operations and enforcement actions, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Opinion
The Big Issues A BigLaw Associates' Union Could Address
A BigLaw associates’ union could address a number of issues that have the potential to meaningfully improve working conditions, diversity and attorney well-being — from restructured billable hour requirements to origination credit allocation, return-to-office mandates and more, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.
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Opinion
It's Time For A BigLaw Associates' Union
As BigLaw faces a steady stream of criticism about its employment policies and practices, an associates union could effect real change — and it could start with law students organizing around opposition to recent recruiting trends, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.
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Why DOJ's Whistleblower Program May Have Limited Impact
The U.S. Department of Justice’s new whistleblower pilot program aims to incentivize individuals to report corporate misconduct, but the program's effectiveness may be undercut by its differences from other federal agencies’ whistleblower programs and its interplay with other DOJ policies, say attorneys at Milbank.
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Takeaways From Virginia's $2B Trade Secrets Verdict Reversal
The Virginia Court of Appeals' recent reversal of the $2 billion damages award in Pegasystems v. Appian underscores the claimant's burden to show damages causation and highlights how an evidentiary ruling could lead to reversible error, say John Lanham and Kamran Jamil at Morrison Foerster.
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How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act
In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.
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Parsing FY 2024 DOJ Criminal Healthcare Fraud Enforcement
While the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division's strike force on healthcare fraud enforcement action shows an impressive doubling of criminal indictments, a closer look at the data offers important clues about underlying trends, including the comparably modest, accompanying increase in associated intended loss, say Roderick Thomas and Kathleen Cooperstein at Wiley.
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How Gov't AI Protections May Affect Contractors' Data Rights
The U.S. Senate’s proposed National Defense Authorization Act for 2025, which includes provisions to maintain the government's data rights when contracting for artificial intelligence, should prompt contractors to examine how to protect their own rights when the current data rights framework is applied to AI, say Tyler Evans and Caitlin Conroy at Steptoe.