Partner, McCarter & English, LLP
Franklin Turner is a Partner and Co-Leader of the Government Contracts & Export Controls Practice Group. He is an innovative business lawyer with significant experience resolving complex government contracts issues for a broad array of companies – ranging from multinational Fortune 100 corporations to mid‑market and small businesses. Mr. Turner routinely represents clients in the aerospace, defense, information technology, health care and industrial supply sectors.
Mr. Turner’s multifaceted practice includes assisting companies with comprehensive claims for payment, prosecuting and defending bid protests, counseling companies regarding small business regulations and related issues, conducting internal investigations to ensure his clients’ compliance with federal procurement regulations and related statutes, preparing and submitting mandatory and voluntary disclosures, counseling prime contractors and subcontractors regarding disputes, defending companies against False Claims Act allegations, counseling companies regarding issues of cost allowability, allocability and reasonableness, designing and implementing comprehensive regulatory compliance programs, and assisting government contractors in connection with mergers and acquisitions due diligence.
Mr. Turner is a prolific author and lecturer and is routinely called upon by national and international news organizations to offer his insight regarding developments in the federal procurement industry.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Turner has represented clients in connection with disputes involving a multitude of federal government entities, including the: General Services Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Department of the Navy, Department of the Air Force, Department of the Army, Department of State, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, Department of the Interior, Department of the Coast Guard, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Defense Information Systems Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, United States Postal Service, Defense Contract Audit Agency and Defense Contract Management Agency.
Partner, McCarter & English, LLP
Daniel Kelly brings over thirty years of experience to the firm’s government contracts group. His practice combines both counseling and acting as an advocate on behalf of clients doing business in the government marketplace. Dan has knowledge of the government contracting process both on a federal and state level, and the specific laws, regulations, contract clauses and dispute resolution mechanisms in this specialized area. He provides advice and guidance to clients who are in the government supply chain, either as prime contractors, subcontractors or vendors. He reviews government solicitations with clients, prepares proposals, and negotiates teaming arrangements and subcontracts with other suppliers. He helps clients build and enhance their compliance programs. He assists clients in protecting their intellectual property and proprietary information concerning their businesses when doing business with the government. He advocates for clients who wrongfully were passed over for a contract award. He prepares claims arising under government contracts as a result of change orders, delays, and terminations for default or convenience. Dan’s practice extends to a broad spectrum of industries and federal and state authorities for whom they supply research, products and services, including emerging and established biomedical, intelligence, pharma, security, and textile R&D, manufacturing and production houses working under prime and subcontracts, SBIRs, CRADAs, OTAs, and grants for DoD and civilian agencies; Medicare and Medicaid audit and investigation service providers; commercial software developers who modify their software for military applications; professional services providers; and raw materials and component suppliers to large military prime contractors.
Dan is the author of the August 2018 edition Thomson Reuters’ Briefing Papers, which provides a comprehensive review of patent rights under “Other Transaction Agreements” (OTAs) with DoD and NASA. Heavily promoted by Congress, and only partially understood by industry, OTAs are quickly becoming DoD’s and NASA’s contractual vehicle of choice to lure commercial companies to sell the Government their latest and greatest technologies. However, OTAs are not governed by standard government contracts laws and regulations, meaning there are significant changes to the common provisions of ownership and license rights incident to government contracts and grants. The Briefing Paper should be required reading before entities enter into an OTA as a vehicle for developing new technologies for NASA and DoD to ensure their company’s intellectual property efforts are properly protected
In the matters, AdvanceMed Corporation, B-415360,B-415360.2,B-415360.3 (Dec 19, 2017), and AdvanceMed Corporation, B-414373.3 (Jan 10, 2018) Dan and the Government Contracts team at McCarter successfully defended its client Health Integrity, LLC (now Qlarant) against protests launched at the Government Accountability Office challenging awards by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for Medicare and Medicaid audit and program integrity services.
Dan serves on the Board of Directors for NCMA Boston (National Contract Management Association) and NDIA New England (National Defense Industrial Association), and is a frequent speaker at NCMA and NDIA events.
Dan serves as an adjunct member of the faculty at Suffolk University Law School where he has taught Government Contracts.
Dan receives Mentor of the Year Award in recognition of his contributions and support to NCMA Boston Chapter’s 2017-2018 Program Year.
Partner, McCarter & English, LLP
Alexander Major is a partner and co-leader of the firm’s Government Contracts & Export Controls Practice Group. Mr. Major focuses his practice on federal procurement, cybersecurity liability and risk management, and litigation. A prolific author and thought leader in the area of cybersecurity, his professional experience involves a wide variety of litigation and counseling matters dealing with procurement laws and federal regulations and standards. His diverse experience includes complex litigation in federal court under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act and bid protest actions. He counsels all sizes of companies on issues relating to compliance with government regulations including, among other things, cybersecurity (NIST, FIPS, FedRAMP, and DFARS) requirements, multiple award schedule compliance, Section 508 issues, country of origin requirements under the Buy American and Trade Agreements Acts, cost accounting, and small business requirements. He also regularly conducts internal investigations to assist companies ensure that they are in full compliance with the law.
Mr. Major is a contributing author to Computer Software Protection-Liability-Law-Forms, “Chapter 21 - Cloud Computing” (Thomson Reuters), 2018-present. He was also a founding editor and contributing author to the Cloud Computing Legal Deskbook (Thomson Reuters), an annual publication addressing cloud computing issues and solutions for commercial and government end users and suppliers.
Mr. Major is a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer who most recently served as a U.S. Air Force Academy Admissions Liaison Officer for the state of Maryland in the Air Force Reserves.
Mr. Major has experience handling commercial and government contract compliance and litigation matters, including cases involving False Claims Act, fraud, embezzlement, and RICO. Mr. Major has also managed complex electronic discovery and pre-trial civil matters on behalf of Fortune 500 companies and individuals in diverse state and federal civil and criminal proceedings.
Partner, Mayer Brown LLP
Marcia Madsen was Chair of the Government Contracts practice and co-chair of the National Security Practice at Mayer Brown. She represented contractors in regulatory, policy, transactional, litigation, and investigative matters involving virtually every federal agency. Her clients included defense contractors, information technology and systems integrators, telecommunications companies, engineering firms, insurers, and manufacturing companies. Ms. Madsen's practice included defense of False Claims Act matters, internal investigations, audits, bid protests, claims and disputes before administrative forums and in the federal courts. She was a former Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Public Contract Law and currently co-chairs the Section’s Procurement Fraud Committee. She also is a member of the Federalist Society Administrative Law and Regulation Executive Committee. In addition, Marcia was a member of the Court of Federal Claims Advisory Council - Emeritus, and a recipient of the Court's Golden Eagle award. She was a Past President of the Board of Contract Appeals Bar Association. She was appointed by the Executive Office of the President to chair the Section 1423 Panel which recommended revision of the acquisition laws. She spoke and wrote frequently on government contracts and litigation topics.
Georgetown University Law Center, LL.M., 1980
American University - Washington College of Law, J.D., 1976
University of Utah, B.A., 1972
Associate, Mayer Brown
Peter Schmidt is an associate in Mayer Brown's Washington DC office and a member of the Intellectual Property practice. He focuses on the finance, media, and technology industries, advising and representing clients in patent, copyright, and trade secret matters. Peter’s work focuses on cases involving complex technical and financial issues, where he draws on his previous experience both as a software engineer and as a financial consultant for McKinsey and Company. These cases have covered both hardware and software issues in a range of sectors.
Peter has represented clients in a broad range of types and stages of litigation, and has extensive experience in case assessment; complaints and answers; discovery and fact gathering; non-infringement, infringement, invalidity, and validity contentions; claim construction; expert reports; motion practice (including summary judgment and admissibility of evidence); trial; and appeals. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and first in his class from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering; he also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Counsel, Mayer Brown
Luke Levasseur has been representing clients in complex federal litigation for more than 20 years and currently focuses his practice on government contract matters. He represents clients in large contract disputes and bid protests before the US Court of Federal Claims and the Government Accountability Office. He has represented clients in federal and state False Claims Act cases, presenting arguments in federal court and conducting internal investigations for clients. Luke also has experience handling a variety of other federal court litigation for clients, involving such matters as antitrust claims, trademark disputes, and alleged fraud.
Prior to re-joining Mayer Brown in 2006, Luke represented the federal government as an attorney with the Civil Division of the US Department of Justice from 1997-2006. He served as lead counsel for, or had a significant role during the trial and appeal of, several large cases that were part of the Winstar-related litigation, which involved billions of dollars in claims against the government and were based on legislative and regulatory changes in the financial services industry. In those cases, he was responsible for developing and presenting expert opinion testimony from the government’s witnesses, including a Nobel-prize winning economist, and for cross-examining other parties’ experts. Throughout his career, Luke has focused on expert witness issues in complex litigation.
When he was with the Department of Justice, Luke also represented the government in numerous appeals before the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He was awarded the John Marshall Award for Outstanding Legal Achievement and a Special Commendation Award for exceptional contributions to the defense of the Winstar cases. Luke continues to be an active part of the Court of Federal Claims bar and served as the President of that Court's Bar Association during 2012.
Partner, Mayer Brown
David Dowd is an experienced litigator at Mayer Brown whose practice has a strong emphasis in government contracting issues and controversies. He advises such clients as those involved in health care, information technology, large military systems, engineering services, and other industries regarding federal procurements and related issues. His counsel in this area includes commercial items, conflicts of interest, cost allowability issues, defective pricing, contract and subcontract negotiations, contract financing, assignments and novations, leasing, prime/sub disputes, preparation of claims, and procurement fraud.
David also handles procurement controversies, as he litigates bid protests and disputes before the Government Accountability Office and the Court of Federal Claims, represents contractors in litigation and arbitrations involving government contracts, and tries federal court litigation focused on contract disputes and alleged fraud.
Health care and insurance companies rely on David for advice regarding federal health care and insurance programs, including FEHBA, Medicare, TRICARE, and FEGLI. He represents these industry clients in bid protest and claim litigation regarding federal health care and insurance programs. In related matters, David counsels biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies on biodefense purchasing opportunities and applications, including research and development.
David has more than 20 years of practice experience, having joined Mayer Brown’s Washington, DC office in 2001 after practicing with two other national law firms.
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