Stephanie M. Harden was recently recognized as a Law360 Rising Star—one of only five government contracts attorneys nationally to receive this recognition. She has extensive experience representing government contractors in a wide array of litigation and counseling matters, including:

• Bid Protests: Stephanie has represented clients in dozens of bid protests before the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) and U.S. Court of Federal Claims, including several complex multibillion dollar procurements. Two of Stephanie’s significant protest wins are Lockheed Martin Corp. v. United States, 124 Fed. Cl. 709 (2016) (successfully defeating preliminary injunction alleging a range of protest allegations in major defense procurement) and AllWorld Language Consultants, Inc. (2016 CPD ¶ 12) (sustained protest of GSA Schedule contract award where putative awardee’s FSS contract did not meet solicitation requirements).
• Cost and Pricing Matters: Stephanie regularly counsels clients on responding to Government audits (including by DCAA, DCMA, and SIGAR), the submission of Requests for Equitable Adjustments and claims, defective pricing matters, and claims litigation before the Boards of Contract Appeals. Stephanie has helped clients recover millions of dollars of costs in these matters. Stephanie regularly speaks and writes on cost accounting and pricing issues and currently serves as a Vice Chair on the American Bar Association’s Accounting, Cost and Pricing Committee, where she is also leading a Task Force Working Group on potential changes to the Contract Disputes Act and related regulations.
• False Claims Act (“FCA”) Litigation: Stephanie has extensive experience with FCA litigation, particularly cases involving complex government contracting principles.
• Internal Investigations/Compliance: Stephanie has counseled clients on compliance matters and internal investigations involving all manner of federal regulatory requirements, including the mandatory disclosure rule, small business regulations, the Anti-Kickback Act, and gift and gratuity regulations.

Stephanie writes and speaks regularly about issues facing government contractors, including, most recently the contractor vaccine mandate. In 2018, Stephanie co-authored the chapter “History and Development of Suspension and Debarment” in The Practitioner’s Guide to Suspension and Debarment, Fourth Edition (ABA Book Publishing, 2018).

Stephanie previously served as a law clerk to Judge Victor J. Wolski on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. She also worked as a summer associate at the GAO. While in law school, she was an editor of the Harvard Journal on Legislation.