Insights

Washington – June 24, 2024: Crowell & Moring has been recommended in eight practice areas in the 17th edition of the Legal 500 United States. In addition, partner Daniel Forman, co-chair of the firm’s Government Contracts Group, has been named to the Legal 500’s “Hall of Fame” for Government Contracts.

Washington – January 2, 2020: Crowell & Moring elected eight lawyers to the firm’s partnership, effective January 1, 2020. The firm also promoted seven attorneys to the position of senior counsel, and 26 associates to the position of counsel. The new partners have been promoted from within the ranks of the firm’s Washington, Los Angeles, and San Francisco offices. The new partners have been promoted from across offices and practice groups, including White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement, Health Care, International Trade, Intellectual Property, Privacy & Cybersecurity, Government Contracts, Litigation, and Antitrust.

Washington – February 22, 2019: Crowell & Moring LLP is pleased to announce that its Government Contracts Group has been recognized as one of Law360’s “Practice Groups of the Year” for government contracts. This is the ninth consecutive year that the group has earned this honor.

The federal government’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton will increase its reliance upon government contractor support to perform critical tasks in the coming months.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal, state, and local agencies charged with disaster response and recovery will look to contractors to provide everything from logistics to housing, construction, and security services.  National disaster contracting provides contractors with immediate opportunities to assist in the recovery effort, but given the time sensitivity, evolving customer needs, and critical nature of the work, contractors must be prepared to: (i) perform under tight deadlines and high scrutiny; (ii) seek clarity with respect to the scope of work they are asked to perform; (iii) properly manage contract and change order documentation; and (iv) maintain contract files for subsequent audits and other inquiries which can take place years after the recovery effort has ended.  One of the most common contract risks associated with disaster response efforts is the inevitable “scope creep” as contractors encounter ever-changing events on the ground, which puts an emphasis on record keeping and timely communications with government customers, to ensure payment for work performed.

On Monday, September 23, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ), released an update to its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (ECCP) guidance.  The ECCP guidance was last revised in March 2023, which brought a number of significant changes, including a focus on compensation and incentive structures (e.g., clawbacks), and third party messaging applications.  This 2024 update, while not as significant in scope as its predecessor, nonetheless highlights the DOJ’s focus on new and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), as part of its evolving assessment of what makes a corporate compliance program truly effective, and how prosecutors should evaluate risk assessments and other management tools at the time of a corporate resolution.

On May 30, 2024, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement Section 803 of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which modified 10 U.S.C. § 3455 to provide additional guidance regarding data requirements needed to support determinations of commerciality and price reasonableness under procurements for major weapon systems.  The rule applies to products that (i) have not previously been deemed commercial by the DoD; and (ii) are proposed as either a subsystem of a major weapon system or as a component or spare part of a major weapon system or subsystem. 

Crowell & Moring is pleased to announce the next installment of our Government Contracts Breakfast Series. All of the sessions will be held in Northern Virginia and focus on issues most important to government contractors. Our next sessions are described below.

Please join Crowell & Moring’s Government Contracts Group as we discuss 2022 changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS). Among other topics, we will cover: revisions to the Buy America Act; new FAR requirements that certain entities disclose their use of workforce and facilities in China; proposed changes to the DFARS on noncommercial computer software; and new and proposed FAR amendments implementing changes to the Small Business Administration’s regulations.

Join Crowell & Moring’s Government Contracts and Privacy & Cybersecurity attorneys for a webinar discussion of key provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 that will impact government contractors and critical infrastructure providers.  Topics addressed in the FY2022 NDAA that will be covered in our webinar include among others: 

In the second installment of Crowell & Moring’s webinar series, our Government Contracts attorneys will discuss the impacts of the current and expected supply chain issues on federal government contractors and their compliance responsibilities. Our panelists will discuss contract clauses that may be at risk as the supply chain delays continue, including requirements for domestic preferences, prohibitions on counterfeit parts, and protecting national security interests.  This panel will also cover the expected Government enforcement of supply chain-related compliance violations, including False Claims Act liability.

Click below to listen or access from one of these links:

This week’s special edition focuses on DOD’s final rule formalizing the requirements, assessment processes, and related governance for its Cyber Maturity Model Certification Program (CMMC), and is hosted by Peter Eyre, Yuan Zhou, and Michael Gruden. Crowell & Moring's "Fastest 5 Minutes" is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without.

This week’s episode covers DOJ’s update to its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs guidance, a proposed rule to amend the DFARS to implement updates to the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data statute (also known as the Truth in Negotiations Act or TINA), and reminders about common considerations for companies supporting disaster response efforts, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and Yuan Zhou. Crowell & Moring's "Fastest 5 Minutes" is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without.