…please allow me to take a moment to thank first responders, soldiers, and ordinary citizens who banded together in a time of immense need and tragedy many years ago today.  Perhaps it’s been “long enough,” but this is the first September 11 that I didn’t want up thinking “X years ago, something terrible happened.”  But

Dean Jessica Tillipman and Professor Christopher Yukins of GW Law have posted an excellent series on a recent DC Metro case that covers many fascinating state and local procurement and grant fraud issues.  They are well worth the read:

Tillipman’s piece (read first):  http://www.fcpablog.com/blog/2014/8/27/dc-metro-opens-doors-to-procurement-fraud-and-retaliation.html

Yukins’ piece (read second):  http://www.fcpablog.com/blog/2014/8/28/so-much-to-learn-from-dc-metro-case.html

This is part four of a five-part series will help answer the question “how do I know which lawyer is right for me?” by breaking the analysis down into vitally important component parts.

QUESTION 4: ARE CONNECTIONS WITH THE GOVERNMENT IMPORTANT FOR MY LAWYER TO HAVE?

Many companies hear that various lawyers have good relationships

My colleagues in the Government Contracts Bar and I get asked all the time “how do I find the right lawyer for my growing government contracting company?”  This is a challenging, gut-wrenching question that entrepreneurs and executives agonize over.  A lot rides on the decision.  Are you ready to move to the next level?  Graduating

In a triumph of common sense, the DC Circuit overturned the KBR privilege decision last week which exempted from privilege internal investigations overseen by in house counsel with a primary purpose of complying with the mandatory disclosure rule.  Although that ruling was temporarily good for business for people like me, it just did not make

I read with some interest a piece in the Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralph-nader/government-secrecy_b_5036280.html where Ralph Nader railed against government secrecy.  One of his proposed methods of curing this is to “post the full text of government contracts online.”  His reason is “[f]ree access to government contracts by taxpayers, the media, scholars, watchdog groups, and even

Contracting programs like the 8(a) Business Development Program, the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Concerns Program, and the Woman-Owned Small Business Program present tremendous opportunities for small businesses to grow and thrive by providing access to potentially lucrative government contracts with limited competition (“set aside” contracts).  But easily and often overlooked compliance issues may, by operation