Statement of Professional History

	Private Practice General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals Defense Logistics Agency Publications, Presentations, and Activities Awards Education and Licenses

Private Practice:

I have engaged in the priv­ate prac­tice of law since May 1987. My prac­tice focus­es on claims against the Gov­ern­ment arising from awards of Federal contracts, or arising from per­form­ance of these con­tracts. Federal courts are adopting electronic case filing, and I have acquired the computer systems and software, and I have the expertise, that is required by this paperless system.

Federal claims prac­tice is a sig­nif­i­cant part of my ac­tiv­i­ties: I rou­tine­ly pur­sue con­tract claims be­fore agen­cy boards of con­tract ap­peal or in the United States Court of Fed­er­al Claims. An­other fo­cus of my prac­tice has been white-collar fraud de­fense work, in­clud­ing de­fen­ses again­st pro­posed de­bar­ments, and again­st civil fraud claims.

My cases include pro­tests again­st awards of mul­ti-mil­lion dollar com­pu­ter sup­port serv­ices or hard­ware and soft­ware ac­qui­si­tions be­fore the United States Court of Fed­er­al Claims, or at the Gov­ern­ment Ac­count­abil­ity Of­fice. I have pur­sued (or de­fend­ed) pro­tests in state courts, be­fore state boards or com­mis­sions, and be­fore the United States Pos­tal Service.

The law concerning Government ac­qui­si­tions is complex, as­suring the in­volve­ment of the United States Court of Ap­peals for the Fed­er­al Cir­cuit in many cases. I am thus en­gaged in a numb­er of ap­pel­late cases each year arising from the United States Court of Ap­peals for the Fed­er­al Cir­cuit’s supervisory role over agency boards of contract appeal and the United States Court of Federal Claims.

Transactional work is an­other part of my prac­tice. I’ve held con­sult­ing serv­ices con­tracts with Fed­er­al agen­cies to pro­vide pro­cure­ment le­gal serv­ices on large com­pu­ter sys­tems ac­qui­si­tions. As well, I’m pro­vid­ing le­gal serv­ices to Vir­gin­ia trans­por­ta­tion com­mis­sions on ques­tions aris­ing un­der the Vir­gin­ia Pub­lic Pro­cure­ment Act. I rou­tine­ly pro­vide ad­vice to priv­ate clients on teaming agreements, cost is­sues, sub­con­tract dis­putes, and oth­er ques­tions that arise dur­ing con­tract per­form­ance. I help priv­ate clients pre­sent their po­si­tions be­fore Congress.

Back to top

General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals:

I was appointed as an Ad­min­i­stra­tive Judge in Feb­ruary 1980. I became the Dep­uty Vice Chair­man in Jan­uary 1984, and in No­vem­ber 1986, I was appointed Vice Chair­man. Prior to 1985, I heard and de­cid­ed maj­or con­tract claims aris­ing from Fed­er­al con­struc­tion proj­ects, in­clud­ing the Mu­seum of Amer­ican History; the Fed­er­al pen­i­ten­tiary in Otis­ville, New York; the Air & Space Mus­eum; and the Thur­mond Fed­er­al Build­ing in Col­um­bia, South Car­o­lina. Al­though my de­cis­ion in Capi­tal Elec­tric Co., GSBCA No. 5316, 83-2 BCA ¶ 16,548, was sub­se­quent­ly re­vers­ed by the United States Court of Ap­peals for the Fed­er­al Cir­cuit, Capi­tal Elec­tric Co. v. United States, 729 F.2d 743 (1984), that de­ci­sion elim­i­nated exist­ing con­fu­sion over two very dif­fer­ent theor­ies of dam­ages: un­der­ab­sorb­ed over­head ver­sus ex­tend­ed home of­fice over­head. In ad­di­tion to con­struc­tion con­trac­ting, I de­cid­ed many lease con­tract dis­putes—GSA’s role as the Gov­ern­ment’s land­lord re­sults in many lease con­tract dis­putes that come be­fore the GSBCA. In 1985, I be­came in­creas­ing­ly in­volv­ed in the GSBCA’s new pro­test juris­dic­tion ov­er com­pu­ter and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­tions ac­qui­si­tions. I was the Ad­mini­stra­tive Judge who de­cided most of these cases un­til I left the GSBCA in May 1987.

Back to top

Defense Logistics Agency:

I began a Government care­er as an at­tor­ney-advisor with De­fen­se Lo­gis­tics Agen­cy’s De­fen­se Con­struc­tion Sup­ply Cen­ter in Co­lum­bus, Ohio. I be­gan try­ing con­tract claims be­fore the Armed Serv­ices Board of Con­tract Ap­peals in 1968. I tried one of the first claims for de­fec­tive cost or pric­ing data, M-R-S Man­u­fac­tur­ing Co., ASBCA No. 14825, 71-1 BCA ¶ 8821, aff’d sub. nom. M-R-S Man­u­fact­ur­ing Co. v. United States, 492 F.2d 835 (1974). I count as a sig­ni­fi­cant vic­tory a case in which I used the “gross mis­take” ex­cept­ion to support re­vok­ing ac­cept­ance of de­fec­tive de­hy­dra­tor cart­rid­ges used in the tail tur­ret of B-52 air­craft, Cata­ly­tic En­gine­er­ing & Man­u­fac­tur­ing Co., ASBCA No. 15257, 72-1 BCA ¶ 9342.

Back to top

Publications, Presentations, and Activities:

I main­tain a World Wide Web site, The Pro­cure­ment Law­yer, a com­pi­la­tion of elec­tronic re­sour­ces for gov­ern­ment con­tracts, pub­lic pro­cure­ment, and federal acquisitions. I pub­lish a pe­riod­ic news­let­ter, Gov­ern­ment Con­trac­tor In­sights, that is dis­trib­uted over the In­ter­net.

I have been a lecturer at GSA’s “Trail Boss” pro­gram, a two-week in­ten­sive course for sen­ior Fed­er­al com­pu­ter sys­tems per­son­nel. I have al­so been a lec­tur­er on Gov­ern­ment con­tracts, pro­tests, and trial prac­tice for the De­part­ment of Jus­tice’s Legal Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tute.

I serve as a volunteer moot court judge for The George Washington University Law School Gov­ern­ment Con­tracts Moot Court Com­pe­ti­tion. I am a mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Cir­cuit Bar As­so­cia­tion, and a mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Cir­cuit Bar As­so­cia­tion’s Ami­cus Committee.

Back to top

Awards:

Assistant Sec­re­tary’s Award for Ex­cel­len­ce, United States De­part­ment of State, Bu­reau of Ad­min­i­stra­tion, Sept­ember 1995.

Federal Computer Week’s Federal 100 Award, March 5, 1991.

Defense Logistics Agency Merit­or­ious Civ­i­lian Serv­ice Award, Feb­ru­ary 19, 1980.

Research Editor, Wil­liam & Mary Law Re­view, 1967-68.

Back to top

Education and Licenses:

B.A., honors, University of Il­lin­ois, 1966; J.D., Mar­shall–Wythe School of Law, College of Wil­liam and Mary, 1968.

Admitted to the bars of the Sup­reme Court of Vir­gin­ia, Dis­trict of Col­um­bia Court of Ap­peals, United States Dis­trict Court for the Dis­trict of Col­um­bia, United States Dis­trict Court for the East­ern Dis­trict of Vir­gin­ia, United States Court of Fed­er­al Claims, United States Court of Ap­peals for the Four­th Cir­cuit, United States Court of Ap­peals for the Fed­er­al Cir­cuit, United States Court of Ap­peals for the Dis­trict of Col­um­bia Cir­cuit, and Su­preme Court of the United States of America.

Back to top