In today’s increasingly competitive aerospace, defense, and government services (“ADG”) marketplace, disputes are inevitable.

Leveraging our nationwide litigation team and decades of experience resolving ADG industry disputes, Blank Rome’s ADG team brings a business-minded approach to dispute resolution and an appreciation that disputes divert attention from our clients’ efforts to serve their customers.

How We Can Help

We partner with our clients to evaluate potential claims early in the dispute process and to formulate strategies that will achieve our clients’ definition of success. When litigation is necessary, we are laser-focused on developing persuasive trial themes and managing discovery efforts to prove the key elements of our clients’ claims and defenses.

We also bring a deep knowledge of the forums where government contracts disputes between private parties are often resolved, such as the state and federal courts in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area (notably including the “Rocket Docket” of the Eastern District of Virginia).

What Sets Us Apart

An Integrated, Business-Minded Approach

Our team is distinguished by its strong collaboration and breadth of experience across the many disciplines required to successfully resolve ADG disputes, including government contracts and government relations. With more than 60 professionals supporting the ADG industry across the firm, our market-leading team brings an integrated approach and bench strength to help our clients navigate their most pressing issues.

Our attorneys keenly understand the business practicalities of ADG disputes. They can be a business distraction with high-stakes outcomes. We counsel our clients on the various approaches and potential outcomes, listen to their desired outcome and risk threshold, and then work diligently and strategically toward that goal.

Our Nationally Recognized Government Contracts Practice

Blank Rome maintains a nationally recognized Government Contracts practice that represents contractors in all aspects of federal, state, and local procurement law—from contract formation through close-out. Our clients span the industry, from companies new to the public sector to those in the Fortune 500; they include leaders in the defense, professional services, information technology, maritime, aviation, healthcare, energy, and construction sectors.

Our practice is widely recognized for our success in helping contractors resolve their most significant government contracts matters, including bid protests, claims, dispute resolution and litigation, government audits and investigations, False Claims Act (“FCA”) cases, mandatory disclosure issues, suspension and debarment, small business programs, and complex regulatory matters.

Our Successes

Representative examples of our experience successfully handling ADG complex dispute resolution include:

• Represented Tetra Tech in contract litigation with its former prime contractor in connection with their joint performance of a U.S. government contract. Designed and implemented a targeted discovery strategy that enabled us to prevail at the summary judgment stage on all liability issues.
• Represented VT Griffin Services, Inc. in a dispute arising from the Army’s failure to pay millions of dollars for work at the second largest Army installation in the United States. Secured payment from the Army and favorably resolved a subcontractor’s related lawsuit in the Eastern District of Virginia through motions practice and mediation.
• Served as lead counsel on behalf of TKC Communications, LLC in a breach-of-lease action in Virginia state court that involved a parallel federal takings action resulting from the government’s holdover tenancy. Successfully argued against the lessor’s efforts to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages in the state action and helped negotiate a favorable settlement with the United States and the lessor in the federal action.
• Served as trial counsel for the former owner of a nuclear power plant in a 13-day trial securing a $40-million judgment against the United States for its failure to dispose of nuclear waste as required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (“NWPA”). It was the first such case addressing damages related to the post-NWPA sale of a nuclear power plant.
• Represented the operating tenant of a Department of Energy laboratory in commercial litigation with a construction company arising out of the remediation of radioactively contaminated soil. This highly technical dispute involved public perception issues that would have been exacerbated by a trial. To achieve our client’s objective (i.e., resolution without publicity), we championed the idea of a “mini-trial” mediation strategy in which we utilized a retired judge to serve as a non-binding arbiter following a condensed presentation of witnesses, documentary evidence, and legal arguments. The process resulted in a favorable settlement at a significant discount to the projected cost of taking the case through trial.
• Represented the U.S. affiliates of an international logistics company in litigation relating to alleged interference (commercial defamation) with the award of U.S. government contracts.
• Represented entities in high-profile discrimination and contract litigation cases with former customers and business partners. Due to the nature of the allegations and opposing counsel’s aggressive publicity campaigns, these matters involved significant public relations and crisis management components. In both cases, we developed and implemented investigation strategies that balanced legal and public relations concerns, and which led to favorable resolutions.