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Government Contracts
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August 26, 2024
LA To Pay $38.2M In FCA Suit Alleging Inaccessible Housing
The city of Los Angeles will pay $38.2 million to settle allegations it knowingly failed, for over a decade, to ensure federally funded affordable multifamily housing properties were accessible to people with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
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August 26, 2024
Army Corps Looks To Trim Claims In Alaskan Gold Mine Row
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has told an Alaska federal judge that most of the claims asserted by a small village that's trying to thwart an open pit gold mine can't be supported and should be dismissed.
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August 26, 2024
Tetra Tech Accuses Atty Of Mistreating Witness In FCA Row
Tetra Tech EC Inc. claimed that an attorney representing a developer accusing it of fraud had mistreated a witness during a deposition hearing, pressing a California federal court to order the release of recordings capturing the alleged misconduct.
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August 26, 2024
GAO Rejects EY Protest Over $108M DOD Accounting Deal
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has denied Ernst & Young LLP's protest over a $107.8 million accounting services deal in support of U.S. Transportation Command, awarded to KPMG LLC, finding that the agency reasonably evaluated both companies' proposals.
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August 26, 2024
11th Circ. Won't Revive JPMorgan Chase Whistleblower Suit
The Eleventh Circuit on Monday refused to revive a whistleblower suit against JPMorgan Chase Bank NA for allegedly forging mortgage loan documents and submitting false reimbursement claims to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, finding the allegations had already been publicized prior to the lawsuit.
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August 26, 2024
RTX Settles Bearing Co.'s Trade Secrets Suit On Eve Of Trial
Defense contractor RTX Corp. on Monday settled claims that it passed a Connecticut roller bearing manufacturer's sensitive design drawings to a competitor, averting a trial set to begin this week.
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August 26, 2024
Wild Ga. Horses Need Aid During Suit's Limbo, Advocates Say
As a Georgia federal judge considers whether to scuttle a lawsuit alleging that a herd of feral horses on one of the state's coastal islands has been neglected and mistreated by federal authorities, the equine plaintiffs have asked the court to order the government to furnish them with emergency stores of food and drinking water.
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August 26, 2024
NY Nursing Homes Can't Duck AG's $83M Fraud Suit
A New York judge shot down a bid by four nursing homes and their operators to dismiss the state attorney general's claims that they defrauded Medicare and Medicaid and neglected residents.
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August 26, 2024
Gov't Contracting Policies To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2024
An overhaul to the U.S. Department of Defense's cybersecurity requirements and a pending rule requiring many contractors to report their greenhouse gas emissions headline a slate of significant policy initiatives for government contractors to watch for during the second half of this year. Here, Law360 previews four upcoming policy changes with significant potential impacts on government contractors.
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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.
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August 23, 2024
Transport Co.'s Union Pushback Flouted Law, Judge Says
A company that transports migrant children and families from facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border violated federal labor law through its pushback on a union drive, which included interrogating a worker about his union sympathies and later suspending him, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Friday.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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August 23, 2024
Court Again Dumps Pa. County's Dominion Contract Suit
A Pennsylvania federal court threw out a county's lawsuit against Dominion Voting Systems for a second time, ruling that an amended complaint failed to fix the issue of standing that sank the suit the first time.
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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."
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August 22, 2024
Calif. Justices Revive PwC's $2.5M Sanction Against LA
The California Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously restored a $2.5 million sanction sought by PwC against the city of Los Angeles for pervasive discovery misconduct in an underlying utility billing fight, finding that the trial court had the authority to impose monetary sanctions under the state's Code of Civil Procedure.
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August 22, 2024
Construction Co. Says It's Owed Coverage For Sinkhole Claim
A Washington construction company has filed a suit seeking to force an insurer to cover potential damages in an underlying lawsuit alleging the company botched a sewer pipeline replacement project, causing a sinkhole to open up along a Seattle ship canal after the job ended.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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August 22, 2024
NJ Panel Rejects Dispensary's Bid To Revive Application Suit
A would-be cannabis entrepreneur can't upend a New Jersey township's decision to decline her application for a retail license in favor of others, a state appeals court ruled, saying that she needed to name her competitors as defendants to keep the case viable.
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August 22, 2024
Builder Wins $524M Contract For Cybersecurity Agency HQ
The U.S. General Services Administration announced that it has awarded a construction company with a $524 million contract to build the new Washington, D.C., headquarters for a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agency.
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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."
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August 21, 2024
Legal, Policy Orgs Urge Justices To Toss FCA Interpretation
Two groups are defending AT&T subsidiary Wisconsin Bell Inc. in its challenge to the use of the False Claims Act for E-Rate program reimbursement fraud, telling the Supreme Court in amicus briefs Tuesday that the Seventh Circuit's ruling in the case would make the FCA's qui tam powers too expansive.
Expert Analysis
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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence
The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.
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To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef
To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
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National Security And The Commercial Space Sector: Part 2
Strategy documents recently published by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Space Force confirm the importance of the commercial space sector to the DOD, but say little about achieving the institutional changes needed to integrate commercial capabilities in support of national security in space, say Jeff Chiow and Skip Smith at Greenberg Traurig.
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National Security And The Commercial Space Sector: Part 1
The recently published U.S. Department of Defense space strategy represents a recalibration in agency thinking, signaling that the integration of commercial space capabilities has become a necessity and offering guidance for removing structural, procedural and cultural barriers to commercial-sector collaboration, say Jeff Chiow and Skip Smith at Greenberg Traurig.
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Perspectives
Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys
As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.
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Series
Playing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My deep and passionate involvement in playing, writing and producing music equipped me with skills — like creativity, improvisation and problem-solving — that contribute to the success of my legal career, says attorney Kenneth Greene.
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Contractors Must Prep For FAR Council GHG Emissions Rule
With the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council expected to finalize its proposed rule on the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risk this year, government contractors should take key steps now to get ready, say Thomas Daley at DLA Piper, Steven Rothstein at the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, and John Kostyack at Kostyack Strategies.
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How Attys Can Avoid Pitfalls When Withdrawing From A Case
The Trump campaign's recent scuffle over its bid to replace its counsel in a pregnancy retaliation suit offers a chance to remind attorneys that many troubles inherent in withdrawing from a case can be mitigated or entirely avoided by communicating with clients openly and frequently, says Christopher Konneker at Orsinger Nelson.
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Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content
From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.
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Proposed Semiconductor Buy Ban May Rattle Supply Chains
The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council's recent proposed rulemaking clarifies plans to ban government purchases of semiconductors from certain Chinese companies, creating uncertainty around how contractors will be able to adjust supply chains that are already burdened and contracted to capacity, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Patent Lessons From 4 Federal Circuit Reversals In April
Four Federal Circuit decisions in April that reversed or vacated underlying rulings provide a number of takeaways, including that obviousness analysis requires a flexible approach, that an invalidity issue of an expired patent can be moot, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.
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Series
Being An EMT Makes Me A Better Lawyer
While some of my experiences as an emergency medical technician have been unusually painful and searing, the skills I’ve learned — such as triage, empathy and preparedness — are just as useful in my work as a restructuring lawyer, says Marshall Huebner at Davis Polk.
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5 Lessons From Ex-Vitol Trader's FCPA Conviction
The recent Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and money laundering conviction of former Vitol oil trader Javier Aguilar in a New York federal court provides defense takeaways on issues ranging from the definition of “domestic concern” to jury instruction strategy, says attorney Andrew Feldman.
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Contract Disputes Recap: Saying What Needs To Be Said
Edward Arnold and Bret Marfut at Seyfarth Shaw examine three recent decisions that delve into the meaning and effect of contractual releases, and demonstrate the importance of ensuring that releases, as written, do what the parties intend.