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Government Contracts
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May 09, 2024
9th Circ. Revives Northrop Retirees' Putative Class Action
The Ninth Circuit on Thursday once again resurrected a proposed class action accusing Northrop Grumman of misinforming retirees about their pension benefits, ruling that the retirees have plausibly alleged that they received inaccurate benefit statements.
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May 09, 2024
Firm Can't Get $99M Deal Reopened After Worker Poached
A consulting firm that lost a $99 million National Archives and Records Administration contract based on a proposed manager's qualifications couldn't convince the U.S. Government Accountability Office that the worker's new employment for the contract winner warranted reconsidering the deal.
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May 09, 2024
Okla. Law Curbing Anti-Oil Pension Fund Investments Blocked
Oklahoma can't enforce a law prohibiting the state pension system from investing in companies that limit oil and gas industry assets, a state judge ruled, finding the retiree leading the suit is likely to succeed on arguments that the statute is vague and violates the state constitution.
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May 09, 2024
Insurer Still Can't Escape Explosion Coverage Row
An insurer cannot yet avoid defending gas companies in personal injury litigation after a subcontractor caused an explosion injuring three people, an Indiana federal court has ruled, reiterating a previous finding that the subcontractor's ultimate release from liability following a settlement has no bearing on the gas companies' additional insured status.
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May 08, 2024
Fuel Truck Exec Cops To Rigging Firefighting Contract Bids
An Idaho fuel truck company executive accused of conspiring with others to manipulate bids for U.S. Forest Service firefighting contracts to suppress other competitors in the market over an eight-year period pled guilty Wednesday in federal court, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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May 08, 2024
Fla. Defense Contractor Admits To Selling Parts From Turkey
A Florida defense contractor has pled guilty to federal conspiracy charges in connection to a scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Defense, admitting that she violated export control laws by using a front company to supply critical military components that were manufactured in Turkey.
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May 08, 2024
Fed. Circ. Denies Siemens' Bid For Navy Energy Audit Costs
The Federal Circuit ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Navy doesn't owe a Siemens unit $5.7 million for costs the company incurred to investigate potential energy savings measures at two military installations, saying a related contract clearly didn't cover those costs.
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May 08, 2024
Colo. Sheriff Fights State Law That Let His Deputies Unionize
A Colorado county sheriff whose staff is unionizing has sued the state over the 2023 law that gave his workers the right to organize, seeking a declaration that the law does not apply to his office.
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May 08, 2024
GAO Backs DLA's Sole-Source Fuel Deal With Iraqi Contractor
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has dismissed a Virginia company's protest of a jet fuel contract the Defense Logistics Agency awarded to an Iraqi competitor, saying the protester's challenge of the deal was based on factual inaccuracies.
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May 08, 2024
Legal Access Program Being Set Up For Separated Families
The Biden administration has tapped the Acacia Center for Justice to manage a court-ordered legal access program to help migrant families stay in the U.S. after they were separated under a Trump-era policy to prosecute anybody caught entering the country unlawfully.
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May 08, 2024
GOP Bill Aims To Fund Southwestern States' Border Barriers
States along the southwestern U.S.-Mexican border looking to build physical barriers or update existing ones could receive federal grants to do so under new legislation from a pair of Republican members of the House of Representatives.
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May 08, 2024
Taliban's Unexpected Takeover Dooms Contractor's $1.5M Suit
An administrative appeals board refused to order the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reimburse a contractor for $1.5 million of equipment lost while evacuating Afghanistan, saying it couldn't have anticipated in 2019 a Taliban takeover just over two years later.
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May 08, 2024
Conn. Builder Drops $4.7M Stamford Pavilion Delay Suit
A Connecticut general contractor has dropped its lawsuit accusing the city of Stamford and an architecture practice of causing delays in a $4.7 million project and driving up the building company's costs as it tried to build a pavilion in a city park.
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May 07, 2024
GOP Reps. Want IP Enforcers To Get Tougher On Infringers
Republican lawmakers complained at a Tuesday congressional hearing about the Biden administration's move to end the controversial Trump-era "China Initiative" aimed at curbing suspected economic espionage and questioned administration officials over how diligently they have pursued intellectual property cases on behalf of U.S. manufacturers, retailers, movie studios and vape companies.
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May 07, 2024
10th Circ. Finds 'Religious Animus' In School's Vaccine Rules
The Tenth Circuit ruled Tuesday that the University of Colorado System's policies regarding COVID-19 vaccine exemptions violated constitutional religious liberty protections, saying its rules were motivated by "religious animus" and should have been blocked by a trial court.
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May 07, 2024
2nd Circ. Weighs Border Wall Fraud Juror's Tie To Prosecution
A Colorado man convicted of scheming to defraud donors to a campaign to build a southern border wall told the Second Circuit on Tuesday that his trial was tainted by a juror's family connection to the prosecution team.
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May 07, 2024
Judge Bars Prominent Expert From Vets' Contract FCA Trial
A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday refused to allow a former senior Small Business Administration official to testify in a pending False Claims Act trial over an alleged scheme to defraud a veterans' contracting program, saying the proposed testimony covered an irrelevant issue.
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May 07, 2024
Microsoft Announces AI For Top Secret Gov't Cloud
Microsoft announced Tuesday that it will make generative artificial intelligence tools available for federal defense and intelligence agencies as part of its cloud system for classified information, using a private network not connected to the public internet.
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May 07, 2024
Feds Say Student Recruiter Charged UK Schools Illicit Fees
A Massachusetts company that recruits American students to attend British universities unlawfully demanded that foreign schools participating in U.S. student aid programs pay it an incentive fee and then hide the payments from the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
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May 07, 2024
Swiss Co. Says $8M Equatorial Guinea Award Is Valid
A Swiss clinic operator ousted from a hospital contract in Equatorial Guinea has asked the D.C. Circuit to affirm the enforcement of an $8 million arbitral award against the country, rebutting its argument that the company was required to litigate in the local courts first.
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May 07, 2024
Alaska Tribes Say USDA Didn't Consult On Broadband Grants
Two Alaskan tribes are taking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to federal court after they say the agency gave away $70 million in funds meant to help connect them to the internet after falsely declaring them "served" without checking with the tribes, as they were legally obligated to do.
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May 07, 2024
Lockheed Accused Of Causing $8.25M Damages In Ship Tests
A marine transportation company took Lockheed Martin Corp. to Michigan federal court, accusing the defense contractor of negligently causing $8.25 million worth of damages to its dock while testing a naval combat vessel.
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May 06, 2024
13 Judges Boycott Columbia Clerks Over Protest Response
A group of 13 federal judges told Columbia University's president Monday they won't hire students who attend the university or its law school as clerks, calling it an "incubator of bigotry" for its handling of student protests over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a copy of their letter that U.S. District Judge Alan Albright shared with Law360.
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May 06, 2024
Colo. Justices To Hear College COVID Refund Case
The Colorado Supreme Court said Monday it will consider whether students at Colorado State University campuses can still pursue a class action seeking fee refunds after a state appeals court found the public university system was justified in closing campuses because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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May 06, 2024
GEO Urges Fast End To State Law On Immigration Inspections
GEO Group Inc. has told a Washington state federal judge that a state law allowing surprise inspections at private immigration detention centers so clearly targets its operations that the court should permanently bar the law now, instead of letting its defense continue.
Expert Analysis
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Bid Protest Spotlight: Instructions, Jurisdiction, Scrutiny
In this month's bid protest roundup, Michaela Thornton at MoFo examines three recent protests resolved in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Government Accountability Office that arose from indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract awards and offer important reminders about the fundamentals of procurement law.
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General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI
With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.
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A Look At Successful Bid Protests In FY 2023
Attorneys at Sheppard Mullin look beyond the statistics in the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s recent annual report on bid protests, sharing their insights about nine categories of sustained protests, gained from reading every fiscal year 2023 decision in which the protester had a positive result.
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Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information
As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.
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Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD
Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.
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AI Use May Trigger False Claims Act's Public Disclosure Bar
The likely use of publicly available artificial intelligence tools to detect government fraud by combing through large data sets will raise complex questions about a False Claims Act provision that prohibits the filing of claims based on previously disclosed information, say Nick Peterson and Spencer Brooks at Wiley Rein.
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Biden Climate Push Expands With Contractor GHG Focus
President Joe Biden's recent announcement that federal agencies will consider contractors' greenhouse gas emissions when making procurement decisions demonstrates his administration's continued interest in using government contracting as a vehicle for reducing climate-related impacts — a theme first established in the early months of his term, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.
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Unpacking GAO's FY 2023 Bid Protest Report
The U.S. Government Accountability Office's recent bid protest report reflects an increase in sustained protests, illustrating that disappointed offerors may see little reason to refrain from seeking corrective action — but there is more to the story, say Aron Beezley and Patrick Quigley at Bradley Arant.
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How Biden's AI Order Stacks Up Against Calif. And G7 Activity
Evaluating the federal AI executive order alongside the California AI executive order and the G7's Hiroshima AI Code of Conduct can offer a more robust picture of key risks and concerns companies should proactively work to mitigate as they build or integrate artificial intelligence tools into their products and services, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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A Closer Look At Proposed HHS Research Misconduct Rule
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' proposed updates to its policies on research misconduct codify many well-known best practices, but also contain some potential surprises for the research community and counsel, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.
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Attorneys, Law Schools Must Adapt To New Era Of Evidence
Technological advancements mean more direct evidence is being created than ever before, and attorneys as well as law schools must modify their methods to account for new challenges in how this evidence is collected and used to try cases, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Suspension And Debarment: FY 2023 By The Numbers
A comparative analysis of System for Award Management data, culminating with fiscal year 2023, reveals a year-over-year drop in annual suspension and debarment numbers so significant as to leave the government contracting community trying to figure out what is happening, says David Robbins at Jenner & Block.
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Tips For Litigating Against Pro Se Parties In Complex Disputes
Litigating against self-represented parties in complex cases can pose unique challenges for attorneys, but for the most part, it requires the same skills that are useful in other cases — from documenting everything to understanding one’s ethical duties, says Bryan Ketroser at Alto Litigation.
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Contracts Disputes Recap: Expect Strict Application Of Rules
Zachary Jacobson and Sarah Barney at Seyfarth examine four recent cases highlighting the importance, for both contractors and government agencies, of strict compliance with the Contract Disputes Act’s jurisdictional requirements and with the Federal Acquisition Regulation's remedy-granting clauses.
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Unpacking The FAR Council's Cybersecurity Rules Proposal
New reporting and information sharing requirements in the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council's recently proposed cybersecurity regulations would create new False Claims Act enforceability risks, and could be a focus for the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Cyber Fraud Initiative, say Townsend Bourne and Lillia Damalouji at Sheppard Mullin.