Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Government Contracts
-
June 24, 2024
Justices Undo Terror Victims' Win, Citing Twitter Decision
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday swept aside a D.C. Circuit ruling that threatened to expose major pharmaceutical companies to liability for terrorist attacks that injured or killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers and civilians in Iraq.
-
June 24, 2024
Feds Reach $34M Deal Over Canceled Deportation Flights
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. General Services Administration and an aviation company have struck a $34.4 million settlement ending litigation over canceled deportation flights, according to a filing at the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals.
-
June 24, 2024
Judge Blocks Part Of DOL Construction Prevailing Wage Rule
A Texas federal judge on Monday blocked parts of a U.S. Department of Labor rule changing how prevailing wages are determined for federally funded construction projects from going into effect, saying the department had overstepped its authority under the Davis-Bacon Act.
-
June 24, 2024
DC Circ. Backs Gov't Contractor Win In Fight With Ex-Worker
The D.C. Circuit has backed a ruling that a former senior technical manager for government contractor Apprio Inc. breached a proprietary information agreement giving the rights of certain software he created over to the company.
-
June 24, 2024
Landlord Says Insurer Botched Coverage For $1M State Deal
A Colorado landlord is accusing an insurance broker and carrier of secretly adding an endorsement to its policy to bar coverage for a $1 million settlement the landlord entered into to resolve a state investigation over alleged misuse of tenant funds.
-
June 24, 2024
NM Sued Over Sustainable Building Credit Award Process
A New Mexico apartment complex alleges that the state violated its due process rights after it was denied sustainable building tax credits for most of its units, according to a complaint filed in federal court.
-
June 24, 2024
Construction Super Says Name Was Secretly Used On Permits
A unit of construction engineering firm Structural Group Inc. improperly used the name of a licensed construction supervisor on at least half a dozen Massachusetts projects in which he was not involved, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Norfolk County Superior Court.
-
June 21, 2024
Quinn Emanuel Rips Columbia's 'Utterly Meritless' Filing Bid
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP told the Federal Circuit on Friday that Columbia University's bid to introduce a former Norton Lifelock computer scientist's declaration claiming the company's former lawyers at the firm are lying about his refusal to testify in the school's decade-long $600 million patent case is "utterly meritless."
-
June 21, 2024
Lockheed Units To Pay $70M To End FCA Cost Inflation Suit
Sikorsky Support Services Inc. and Derco Aerospace Inc. have agreed to pay $70 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging that they overcharged the U.S. Navy for spare parts and materials for training aircraft through an illegal subcontracting arrangement, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
-
June 21, 2024
Fed Circ. Revives Gov't Defenses In Land Underpayment Case
The Federal Circuit on Friday revived a dispute alleging that the U.S. Forest Service underpaid for a property, saying the U.S. Court of Federal Claims wrongly rejected the agency's arguments that the seller shouldn't have relied on a disputed appraisal when selling.
-
June 21, 2024
Watchdog Backs NASA's Move To Cut Bid For $2B Deal
A federal watchdog rejected a Science Applications International Corp.'s efforts to rejoin competition for a $2 billion National Aeronautics and Space Administration deal, saying in a decision released Friday that NASA sufficiently explained why it found SAIC's bid noncompetitive.
-
June 21, 2024
Union Tells 1st Circ. It's Fit To Bring Debt Cap Challenge
A U.S. government workers' union challenging the constitutionality of the debt ceiling urged the First Circuit to ignore the Biden administration's argument that union members couldn't explain how it harms them, saying it's reasonable to expect their paychecks will be suspended when it is reimposed.
-
June 21, 2024
'Unexplained' Census Bureau Contract Cancellation Reversed
The U.S. Census Bureau failed to properly explain why it canceled a contract award to an information technology firm after two of the company's competitors challenged the award, a federal claims court judge has determined.
-
June 21, 2024
GAO Says CMS Didn't Address Contractor Conflict Of Interest
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has backed a protest over a $30.65 million Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services analytics task order, saying CMS failed to properly account for a conflict of interest involving a proposed subcontractor for the awardee.
-
June 21, 2024
Feds Offer $850M To Slash Methane From Oil And Gas
The Biden administration on Friday unveiled the latest prong of its multifaceted plan to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas sector: $850 million worth of federal funding for projects that monitor, measure and reduce emissions from oil and gas infrastructure.
-
June 20, 2024
NC Agency Hit With Race Bias Suit Over $17.8M Project
The North Carolina Department of Transportation and one of its contractors subjected Black employees of a subcontractor to "flagrant racial discrimination," according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
-
June 20, 2024
DOI Secretary Looks To Ax Insurer's $20M Tribal Loan Claims
U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is seeking a win in a challenge over the cancelation of a $20 million tribal loan guarantee, arguing that an Ohio federal district court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction over Great American Life Insurance Co.'s remaining claims.
-
June 20, 2024
HHS Drug Pricing Program Flouts Constitution, Boehringer Says
An "unprecedented" new Medicare price negotiation program deprives drugmakers of their constitutional rights and forces them to make declarations on issues of public concern that reflect poorly on them, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. argued Thursday in Connecticut federal court as it echoed the industry chorus seeking to strike the initiative.
-
June 20, 2024
Worker Says Co. Inflated Deductions To Duck Prevailing Wage
An electrical contracting firm overdeducted fringe benefits from the pay of employees who worked on publicly funded projects, dragging down their prevailing wages, a former electrician said in a proposed class action in Pennsylvania state court.
-
June 20, 2024
Judge Won't Stay Ruling That Prompted Navy Debarment
A Court of Federal Claims judge has refused to stay his judgment rejecting a company's protest over the termination of a Navy task order, a ruling that prompted the Navy to propose debarring the company, saying a stay wouldn't affect the debarment process.
-
June 20, 2024
Meet The Bridgegate Atty For NJ Power Broker In RICO Case
Law360 Pulse caught up with Michael Critchley Sr., counsel for recently indicted New Jersey Democratic power broker George E. Norcross III, and lawyers who know him about his decadeslong track record of successful legal defenses in high-profile cases and how he’s preparing for his latest challenge.
-
June 18, 2024
High Court Petition Asks Justices: What's A 'Willful' Kickback?
Does a "willful" act under federal anti-kickback law require a defendant to know that the conduct violates the law? That's the question a whistleblower is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to answer in order to resolve what the petition calls a circuit split on a key question of federal fraud prosecutions.
-
June 18, 2024
The 2 Attys Ensnared In A NJ Mogul's Racketeering Rap
New Jersey businessman George E. Norcross III may be the alleged mastermind of a racketeering scheme to reap millions in tax credits on waterfront property in a distressed city, but the explosive indictment also reveals the purported roles of two attorneys with close ties to the Democratic Party.
-
June 18, 2024
Charges Dropped In NYC Mayor Straw Donor Case
A New York state judge on Tuesday dismissed charges against a former development consultant and state employee, who was accused of being part of a conspiracy to funnel straw donor funds to New York City Mayor Eric Adams' 2021 campaign, after prosecutors agreed to drop the case.
-
June 18, 2024
Fla. Immune To Contract Suit Over COVID Tests, 4th Circ. Says
The Fourth Circuit reversed on Tuesday a district court decision denying a motion to dismiss by a Florida state agency in a breach of contract case involving COVID-19 tests, finding the lower court erred in ruling that the state did not have sovereign immunity and remanding the case for further proceedings.
Expert Analysis
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Insurance Types That May Help Cos. After Key Bridge Collapse
Following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, businesses that depend on the bridge, the Port of Baltimore and related infrastructure for shipment and distribution of cargo should understand which common types of first-party insurance coverage may provide recoveries for financial losses, say Bert Wells and Richard Lewis at Reed Smith.
-
Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance
A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.
-
Bid Protest Spotlight: Unwitting Disclosure, Agency Deference
Roke Iko at MoFo examines two U.S. Court of Federal Claims decisions highlighting factors to consider before filing a protest alleging Procurement Integrity Act violations, and a decision from the U.S. Government Accountability Office about the capacity of an agency to interpret its own solicitation terms.
-
Global Bribery Probes Are Complicating FCPA Compliance
The recent rise in collaboration between the U.S. Department of Justice and foreign authorities in bribery enforcement can not only affect companies' legal exposure as resolution approaches vary by country, but also the decision of when and whether to disclose Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations to the DOJ, say Samantha Badlam and Catherine Conroy at Ropes & Gray.
-
Series
Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.
-
A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System
As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.
-
Pay-To-Play Deal Shows Need For Strong Compliance Policies
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, through its recent settlement with Wayzata, has indicated that it will continue stringent enforcement of the pay-to-play rule, so investment advisers should ensure strong compliance policies are in place to promptly address potential violations as the November elections approach, say attorneys at WilmerHale.