Insights

Washington – January 10, 2022: Crowell & Moring represented the founders of Aerial Armor in the sale of the company to Dedrone Holdings Inc., a leader in smart airport security.

Washington – January 3, 2022: Crowell & Moring elected 13 lawyers to the firm’s partnership, effective January 1, 2022. The firm also promoted seven to the position of senior counsel and 19 associates to the position of counsel. The new partners have been promoted from within the ranks of the firm’s London, New York, and Washington, D.C. offices and from across several practice groups, including Advertising & Media; Antitrust & Competition; Corporate; Energy; Environment & Natural Resources; Government Contracts; Health Care; Technology & Intellectual Property; International Dispute Resolution; Litigation; Mass Tort, Product, and Consumer Litigation; and Privacy & Cybersecurity.

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.

On February 4, 2025, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency’s Powering the Great American Comeback Initiative, signaling five pillars that will guide EPA’s work in the short term, which are summarized below:

Mandatory climate disclosures for US federal contractors are officially off the table—at least, for the foreseeable future.  On January 10, 2025, the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that they are withdrawing a proposed rule, “Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate-Related Financial Risk,” which would have required thousands of federal contractors to inventory and publicly disclose their Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and would also have required  “major” contractors to also establish and validate GHG emission-reduction targets tailored to the goals of the Paris Agreement.  The proposed rule, discussed in further detail here, was introduced in November 2022 and resulted in thousands of public comments from the government contractor community and beyond. 

On June 6, 2024, the General Services Administration (GSA) issued a final rule seeking to minimize the use of single-use plastic (SUP) packaging materials in goods procured through the Federal Supply Schedules (FSS).  Rather than instituting an outright ban on SUP packaging, GSA opted to incentivize FSS contractors to offer SUP-free products through providing a special icon in GSA Advantage for FSS contractors self-certifying that their products are SUP-free.  The final rule explains that the SUP-free icon is intended to act “as an important discriminator when buyers are making purchasing decisions” so that FSS contractors that adopt this voluntary measure will become more marketable in the federal procurement space.  While application of the final rule is limited to purchases from the FSS, GSA believes that the final rule will “also create positive spillovers as non-FSS contracting firms adopt similar policies to compete with FSS contractors in non-FSS markets.”  GSA also explained that the final rule is an “initial step” in providing more sustainable packaging and that the goal is to encourage other federal agencies to eventually adopt these practices into other government contracts.  Importantly, GSA will rely on self-certification that identified products are SUP-free and will not require any third-party verification, as the increased regulatory burden could discourage participation of small businesses.  The final rule is effective starting July 8, 2024.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations are being elevated in corporate, corporate stakeholder, and regulator discourse as never before. Many companies are experiencing ESG pressures for the first time, and indeed they may seem new to entire industries. However, ESG has become an essential institutional investor criteria and will increasingly need to be integrated into the supply and value chains of public and private corporations as financial and other regulators catch up.

Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Please join members of Crowell & Moring’s Environment and Natural Resources Group, with special guest speaker Patricia Spitzley, Deputy Redevelopment Manager and Director of Government Relations for the RACER Trust, for a webinar as they explore the Biden Administration’s focus on environmental justice through an ESG lens.