The aerospace, defense, and government services (“ADG”) industry continues to undergo dynamic growth as global defense spending rises, new threats and challenges arise, technological innovation accelerates, and supply chains become increasingly complex and intertwined.
With more than 60 professionals supporting the ADG industry across the firm, our market-leading team brings an multidisciplinary approach and bench strength to help clients navigate their most pressing issues, including bid protests, claims and disputes, government investigations and False Claims Act (“FCA”) defense, mergers and acquisitions, employment issues, insurance recovery, intellectual property, suspension and debarment, and international contracting.
What Sets Us Apart
Our multidisciplinary ADG team is well positioned to serve the unique needs of government contractor, aerospace, and defense clients regarding regulatory issues, transactional opportunities, and complex litigation. The team’s broad perspective helps our clients uncover new opportunities for success while avoiding delays and pitfalls.
How We Can Help
Our attorneys represent a variety of aerospace, defense, and government services clients in the following practice areas:
Key Contacts: Dominique L. Casimir and Justin A. Chiarodo
Blank Rome’s preeminent Government Contracts practice brings a singular focus on providing the highest level of service to help clients in the ADG industry. Our team is the foundation of our success, with more than 20 attorneys focused exclusively on government contracts law and litigation, including:
- Maintaining one of the leading bid protest practices, representing both protestors and intervenors in bid protest matters in federal procurements;
- Maximizing recoveries on contractor claims involving some of the largest contractors and government programs, as well as successfully defending against government claims (including terminations for default and convenience); and
- Guiding companies and individuals through high-stakes suspension and debarment matters, helping to preserve continued eligibility for federal programs and benefits.
Key Contacts: Sonia Kaur Bain and Elizabeth N. Jochum
For decades, Blank Rome has represented real estate owners and developers in successfully competing for construction, asset management, and long-term leasing opportunities involving federal agency customers. We bring experience across all aspects of federal real estate, including solicitation and proposal analysis and development, lease administration, bid protests, claims and terminations, privatization, enhanced-use leasing, and financing matters.
We complement this experience with a full-service nationwide Real Estate practice, with experience handling acquisitions, dispositions, investments, development, construction, dispute resolution, environmental, financing, leasing, tax, zoning, land use, and workout matters.
Key Contacts: Kipp B. Cohen and Dean S. Nordlinger
Blank Rome’s leading Mergers & Acquisitions practice has decades of experience providing businesses, including government contractors and their investors, with sophisticated analysis and advice in connection with mergers, acquisitions, sale transactions, and investment transactions in the ADG sector. Our practice is set apart by our proven track record in successfully closing transactions, deep industry knowledge, efficiency, and collaboration.
Drawing on the experience of our nationally recognized Corporate/M&A and Government Contracts practices, our integrated and multidisciplinary team handles all aspects of M&A transactions in the government sector, representing clients from start to finish, including structuring, documenting, negotiating, and closing transactions (as well as advising on post-closing integration and regulatory matters). Our significant depth and cross-disciplinary approach make us well suited to tailoring our due diligence and identifying issues and concerns (including non-apparent, but often very important) areas of risk. We also handle the full range of post-closing integration matters, including preparing and processing novation agreements, change-of-name agreements, cost accounting issues, ethics and compliance program enhancement, and addressing employee retention and key personnel matters.
Key Contact: Jennifer A. Short, Shawn M. Wright, and William E. Lawler III
Blank Rome’s False Claims Act and Government Investigations attorneys have extensive experience representing companies and individuals in the ADG sector in investigations and litigation, most notably involving the False Claims Act (“FCA”). Our FCA practice draws upon the experience of many former federal prosecutors and leverages capabilities from the firm’s government contracts; state, federal, and joint investigations & litigation; and white collar defense practices to provide comprehensive service and advice to our ADG clients, always with an eye towards the client’s overall business objectives and needs.
Key Contact: Justin A. Chiarodo, Sharon R. Klein, Jennifer A. Short, and Paul H. Tzur
Blank Rome’s dynamic Cyber-Fraud Investigations & Defense team is comprised of attorneys from our White Collar Defense & Investigations, Privacy, Security & Data Protection, and Government Contracts Groups. With decades of extensive experience protecting companies in the ADG sector targeted under the False Claims Act (“FCA”), we are uniquely positioned to advise you on best practices, help you develop compliance and audit programs, and assist you with investigations and enforcement actions that arise from the U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) recent Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative.
Our knowledgeable and skilled attorneys advise ADG clients on potential cybersecurity risk areas and compliance with cybersecurity regulations and standards, working together across disciplines to:
- Help companies identify if (and what) contractual and/or regulatory obligations they may have to the government;
- Advise as to policies and procedures to implement to ensure compliance with existing and anticipated reporting obligations;
- Respond to DOJ and Inspector General requests for information and documents that implicate cybersecurity processes, controls, and compliance;
- Defend and resolve civil FCA allegations;
- Assist with compliance initiatives to comport with regulatory requirements;
- Review companies’ public statements regarding cybersecurity to assure that they are accurate (not false or misleading), including website postings and Q and K filings;
- Document policies and procedures to demonstrate security compliance;
- Assist in data mapping and risk assessments, and filling any identified gaps;
- Conduct table-top exercises and support actual incident response;
- Draft vendor management documents to assure that third-party suppliers also securely protect data;
- Assist in documenting security in cross-border data transfers; and
- Provide awareness training at every level from employees to directors and officers.
Key Contact: Brooke T. Iley and Frederick G. Sandstrom
Blank Rome’s nationally recognized Labor & Employment attorneys represent clients in a wide array of issues faced by the ADG sector, including employment, ERISA, and labor litigation and counseling. Our team is also at the forefront of many issues impacting the ADG industry, including addressing discrimination claims, EEOC charges, non-compete agreements, wage and hour claims, and Department of Labor audits.
Key Contact: James S. Carter and David A. Thomas
Our Insurance Recovery practice works with policyholders in the ADG industry and takes a creative and business-minded approach to insurance. With decades of proven success in recovering billions of dollars on innovative theories, our clients turn to us for our analysis, experience, reputation, and record of success. We break new ground, making new law for our clients and shaping it for others with precedent-setting litigation, mediation, arbitration, and settlement strategies that lead to landmark rulings, new types of coverage, and major advances.
Key Contact: Dipu A. Doshi, Jon Grossman, and Megan R. Wood
Our Intellectual Property & Technology attorneys have substantial experience in effectively counseling the ADG industry on a full spectrum of IP matters, including patent prosecution, addressing IP and data rights disputes and, as necessary, litigating these issues. Our IP attorneys often collaborate with members of our firm’s Government Contracts practice group on issues arising both from efforts to win government contracts and performing ongoing contracts and government-funded programs.
Key Contact: Anthony Rapa
Blank Rome’s International Trade attorneys have extensive experience in approvals by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”), U.S. export controls (including those administered by the U.S. Departments of State and Commerce), U.S. economic sanctions programs, customs and import regulation, anti-dumping and other trade remedies, foreign acquisitions of U.S. businesses, trade agreements, and defense industries. Our experienced team in Washington, D.C., is well positioned to assist domestic or overseas clients with global trade and national security issues impacting the ADG industry.
Key Contact: Nicole L. Johnson
Blank Rome’s prominent State + Local Tax (“SALT”) team works with ADG clients to:
- Obtain tax compliance certification necessary to proceed with a project;
- Determine the proper tax treatment of the gain from the sale of a business;
- Determine how to source sales for corporate income tax purposes throughout the United States; and
- Provide assistance to resolve state tax assessments.
Key Contacts: Margaret Anne Hill and Frank L. Tamulonis III
Our Environmental practice is uniquely positioned to serve the Aerospace, Defense, and Government (“ADG”) industry, with a team that includes former U.S. Department of Justice trial (“DOJ”) attorneys, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) officials, and assistant U.S. attorneys. Our experience is particularly relevant to ADG companies that must navigate complex environmental regulations, including remedial requirements set for the in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) as well as corresponding state superfund laws.
Key Contact: Michael B. Schaedle
Our business Restructuring and Bankruptcy attorneys are well versed in advising both creditors and debtors within the ADG industry. We handle a variety of matters, from bankruptcy and reorganization to workouts, as well as related litigation and credit and business transactions. We have managed high-stakes insolvency cases in industries that intersect with ADG, such as technology, manufacturing, energy, and transportation.
Related Services
- Government Contracts
- Accounting, Cost & Pricing Issues in Government Contracting
- ADG M&A
- Bid Protests
- Claims
- Data Rights, Licensing & IP Issues in Government Contracting
- Department of Energy (“DOE”) Contracting
- False Claims Act Investigations & Defense
- Insurance Recovery
- Trade Remedies, Trade Litigation & Trade Negotiations
- Labor & Employment
- Suspension & Debarment
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