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Government Contracts
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November 04, 2024
Religious Groups Want 5th Circ. To Toss FCC Diversity Form
Religious broadcasters are asking the Fifth Circuit to step in and stop the Federal Communications Commission from making them turn in diversity data, a recently reinstated policy that they say tramples on their First Amendment rights and pressures them to "engage in race- and sex-conscious employment decisions."
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November 04, 2024
Ohio Justices Tap 3 To Mull Suspension For Indicted Mayor
The Ohio Supreme Court appointed three retired judges Monday to decide whether East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King should be suspended in light of his felony indictment for allegedly using his position to funnel public funds to his own companies.
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November 04, 2024
Texas Rips Feds' 5th Circ. Bid To Revive Highway GHG Rule
Texas is telling the Fifth Circuit there's no reason to disturb a district court's decision to vacate a Federal Highway Administration rule that called on states to set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from federally funded highway projects.
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November 01, 2024
Boeing Supplier Should Win Texas Probe Suit, Judge Says
A magistrate judge on Friday recommended a Texas federal judge grant Spirit AeroSystems Inc.'s bid to permanently enjoin a Texas statute requiring businesses to immediately comply with the state's demand to examine business records, saying the statute is unconstitutional.
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November 01, 2024
Elevance Says Flawed Medicare Rating System Cost It $375M
Elevance Health Inc. has hit the Biden administration with a $375 million lawsuit in Texas federal court after the government slashed star ratings for its Medicare Advantage and Part D health plan contracts in the latest of multiple lawsuits by insurance companies challenging the government's rating system.
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November 01, 2024
Suit Calls School Lunch Pay Processors Junk Fee 'Bullies'
Three parents filed a proposed class action in New Jersey federal court alleging consumer fraud against a major school lunch payment processor, saying it has misrepresented the purpose of the "junk fees" it charges for electronic transactions that are imposed on families mostly just for profit.
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November 01, 2024
4th Circ. Raises Arbitral Finality In Kuwaiti Contractor Case
A Fourth Circuit panel appeared unlikely on Friday to disturb a ruling enforcing an approximately $8 million arbitral award against a Kuwaiti construction company based on an argument that the lower court wrongly interpreted a statutory deadline.
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November 01, 2024
Colo. To Boost Services To End Feds' ADA Discrimination Suit
Colorado has agreed to implement new housing and support practices to ensure adults with physical disabilities have adequate help to leave nursing facilities and receive services in their own homes, as part of a settlement announced Friday to end a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit.
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November 01, 2024
Health Data Co. Urges 4th Circ. To Keep Access Open
Nursing home data analytics company Real Time Medical Systems urged the Fourth Circuit on Friday to keep in place an order that stops electronic medical records company PointClickCare from using unsolvable captcha prompts to block access to patient records.
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November 01, 2024
Ga. Judge Won't Fast Track GOP Poll Worker Suit
A Georgia judge refused Friday to consider a lawsuit alleging Fulton County's election director wrongly denied Republicans' efforts to place poll workers for the November election because there are issues of fact that must be considered by a jury during the next term of court.
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November 01, 2024
Medisca Inks $22M FCA Deal Over Ingredient Pricing Scheme
Pharmaceutical chemical supplier Medisca Inc. has agreed to pay $21.75 million to resolve allegations it created false and inflated average wholesale prices for ingredients used in compound prescriptions sold to pharmacies that increased reimbursement and caused federal healthcare programs to pay more for them, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday.
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November 01, 2024
GAO Sides With Navy Analysis Of Construction Deal Winners
The U.S. Government Accountability Office rejected three companies' protests that the Navy should've chosen them for a construction deal, finding that the Navy was not obligated to assess the price feasibility of the winning competitors.
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November 01, 2024
Treasury Expands Foreign Land Transaction Authority
The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Friday that it has added 59 new military installations to the list of those over which it has jurisdiction to review any nearby real estate transactions involving foreign citizens.
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November 01, 2024
Up Next At High Court: Fed Funds And Securities Risks
The U.S. Supreme Court will return to the bench Monday for its November arguments session, which will start off with a debate over whether the Federal Communications Commission telecom subsidy program involves federal funds subject to the False Claims Act, and on Tuesday how Medicare funding should be calculated for hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income patients.
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November 01, 2024
2024 Election Could Be Crossroads For Clean Energy Funding
Election Day will present a multibillion-dollar fork in the road for the energy industry and its reliance on the federal government to help fund its decarbonization efforts, energy attorneys say.
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November 01, 2024
Conn. Judge Hacks Up Ex-Town Atty's Defamation Suit
A Connecticut state court judge has dismissed all claims against the town of Newington and most claims against its tax assessor from a wide-ranging lawsuit brought by a group of former officials, including the former town attorney, who alleged that they were disparaged in a series of "false" ethics complaints and public comments.
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November 01, 2024
Columbus Doctor Found Guilty In $1.5M Medicaid Scam
A Columbus, Ohio, doctor and his practice were found guilty of defrauding the state's Medicaid program out of $1.5 million through false reimbursement requests for medical equipment he was not actually purchasing, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced.
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October 31, 2024
Ex-Goldman Exec Says 1MDB Judge Thwarted His Defense
Former Goldman Sachs executive Roger Ng on Thursday told the Second Circuit that his trial defense over the massive $6.5 billion 1MDB scheme was marred by the wrongful exclusion of video evidence that supported his claim that $35 million he received in alleged kickbacks was actually investment proceeds.
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October 31, 2024
Madigan Ally Set Up Work For Speaker's Fired Aide, Jury Told
An ex-lobbyist on trial alongside former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan made arrangements for a political operative that Madigan fired to receive monthly payments while he was unemployed, suggesting he enter into contracts with loyal lobbyists and write up reports on legislators "in case the IRS checks this out," a federal jury heard Thursday.
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October 31, 2024
DOL Blocked From Using In-House Court In Hiring Bias Spat
A Texas federal judge temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Labor from using its internal judge system to pursue administrative proceedings against a government contractor for allegedly discriminatory hiring practices, citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that placed limitations on these in-house procedures.
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October 31, 2024
Flint Water Case Paused For 'Advanced' Settlement Talks
Days after a jury trial meant to decide whether a water firm failed to properly warn of the dangers of the city of Flint's water was delayed a second time, a Michigan federal judge paused two bellwether cases because of "advanced settlement negotiations" between individual plaintiffs and the firm.
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October 31, 2024
What DOJ's New National Security Obsession Means For Attys
The Justice Department’s emerging criminal crackdown on corporate national security violations is putting increased pressure on white collar lawyers to be conversant, if not experts, on opaque, complex and swiftly evolving regulations.
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October 31, 2024
Defense Contractor, Ex-Exec Hit With Bribery Charges
Defense contractor Cask Technologies LLC and its former executive vice president have been charged in California federal court with bribing a former civilian official of the U.S. Navy in exchange for government contracts.
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October 31, 2024
Mineral Co. Execs Allegedly Misled Investors On Gov't Contract
Current and former directors and officers of minerals producer Compass Minerals International Inc. face a shareholder derivative action alleging they hid signs the company wouldn't be able to renew a lucrative supplier relationship with the U.S. Forest Service.
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October 31, 2024
GAO Upholds NASA's $98M Aircraft Engineering Support Deal
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has rejected a challenge from a Virginia engineering firm to a $98 million contract awarded to a rival company by NASA, disagreeing that the space agency had assessed bids improperly.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
The Big Issues A BigLaw Associates' Union Could Address
A BigLaw associates’ union could address a number of issues that have the potential to meaningfully improve working conditions, diversity and attorney well-being — from restructured billable hour requirements to origination credit allocation, return-to-office mandates and more, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.
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Opinion
It's Time For A BigLaw Associates' Union
As BigLaw faces a steady stream of criticism about its employment policies and practices, an associates union could effect real change — and it could start with law students organizing around opposition to recent recruiting trends, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.
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Why DOJ's Whistleblower Program May Have Limited Impact
The U.S. Department of Justice’s new whistleblower pilot program aims to incentivize individuals to report corporate misconduct, but the program's effectiveness may be undercut by its differences from other federal agencies’ whistleblower programs and its interplay with other DOJ policies, say attorneys at Milbank.
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Takeaways From Virginia's $2B Trade Secrets Verdict Reversal
The Virginia Court of Appeals' recent reversal of the $2 billion damages award in Pegasystems v. Appian underscores the claimant's burden to show damages causation and highlights how an evidentiary ruling could lead to reversible error, say John Lanham and Kamran Jamil at Morrison Foerster.
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How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act
In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.
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Parsing FY 2024 DOJ Criminal Healthcare Fraud Enforcement
While the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division's strike force on healthcare fraud enforcement action shows an impressive doubling of criminal indictments, a closer look at the data offers important clues about underlying trends, including the comparably modest, accompanying increase in associated intended loss, say Roderick Thomas and Kathleen Cooperstein at Wiley.
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How Gov't AI Protections May Affect Contractors' Data Rights
The U.S. Senate’s proposed National Defense Authorization Act for 2025, which includes provisions to maintain the government's data rights when contracting for artificial intelligence, should prompt contractors to examine how to protect their own rights when the current data rights framework is applied to AI, say Tyler Evans and Caitlin Conroy at Steptoe.
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Lessons From Recent SEC Cyber Enforcement Actions
The recent guidance by the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance is helpful to any company facing a cybersecurity threat, but just as instructive are the warnings raised by the SEC's recent enforcement actions against SolarWinds, R.R. Donnelley and Intercontinental Exchange, say attorneys at O'Melveny.
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9th Circ. Ruling Flags Work Harassment Risks Of Social Media
The recent Ninth Circuit ruling in Okonowsky v. Garland, holding an employer could be liable for a co-worker's harassing social media posts, highlights new challenges in technology-centered and remote workplaces, and underscores an employer's obligation to prevent hostile environments wherever their employees clock in, say Jennifer Lada and Phillip Schreiber at Holland & Knight.
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Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?
A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.
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Series
Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.
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Bid Protest Spotlight: Misplaced Info, Trade-Offs, Proteges
James Tucker at MoFo examines three recent decisions concerning the consequences of providing solicited information in the wrong section of a bid proposal, the limits of agency discretion in technical merit, best-value trade-off evaluations, and the weight of the experience and capabilities of small businesses in mentor-protégé joint venture qualification.
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Del. Dispatch: Director Caremark Claims Need Extreme Facts
The Delaware Court of Chancery recently dismissed Caremark claims against the directors of Centene in Bricklayers Pension Fund of Western Pennsylvania v. Brinkley, indicating a high bar for a finding of the required element of bad faith for Caremark liability, and stressing the need to resist hindsight bias, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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Opinion
Time To Reimagine The Novation Process For Gov't Contracts
The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, which recently extended a long-standing request for public comments on its novation procedures, should heed commenters' suggestions by implementing specific changes in its documentation requirements, thereby creating a more streamlined and practical novation process, say attorneys at Covington.
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3 Leadership Practices For A More Supportive Firm Culture
Traditional leadership styles frequently amplify the inherent pressures of legal work, but a few simple, time-neutral strategies can strengthen the skills and confidence of employees and foster a more collaborative culture, while supporting individual growth and contribution to organizational goals, says Benjamin Grimes at BKG Leadership.