Susan B Cassidy

Susan Cassidy is a partner in the firm’s Washington, DC office and a member of the Government Contracts Practice Group. Ms. Cassidy works with clients to navigate successfully the complex rules and regulations that govern federal procurement. Her practice includes both counseling and litigation components. Ms. Cassidy regularly provides contractors with advice on a variety of sophisticated procurement issues including organizational conflicts of interest, technical data rights, pricing requirements, procurement integrity, and other ethics issues. She has provided training on government contracts regulatory compliance issues to various top defense and commercial contractors. Ms. Cassidy also has an active bid protest practice before the Government Accountability Office and has represented clients in litigation before federal courts, state courts, and other administrative agencies. She also works with clients to develop claims and REAs and to resolve prime-subcontractor disputes. From 2008 to 2012, Ms. Cassidy served as in-house counsel at Northrop Grumman Corporation, one of the world’s largest defense contractors. In this role, she provided government contracts legal advice to business partners in support of a broad array of programs including those involving missile defense integration, enterprise IT infrastructure solutions for the U.S. Department of Defense, cybersecurity for the defense and intelligence communities, combat systems integration, identity management and biometrics, and cloud computing. Previously, Ms. Cassidy held an in-house position with Motorola Inc., leading a team of lawyers supporting sales of commercial communications products and services to US government defense and civilian agencies. Prior to her in-house experience, Ms. Cassidy was a government contracts and litigation partner in a large international firm. REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS Conducted numerous internal fraud investigations for a variety of government contractors in the defense, intelligence, telecommunications, and consulting markets involving the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback Act, and the Procurement Integrity Act. Advised and helped major telecommunications service provider to resolve GSA schedule pricing investigation involving complex price reduction clause issues. Successfully represented client in agency hearings under the Administrative Procedures Act to obtain ruling on interpretation of federal regulations that favorably impacted client’s payment obligations under U.S. Department of Agriculture statute. Worked with clients to develop government contracts compliance plans. Specific focus with emerging commercial government contractors Team member advising the U.S. Navy in the A-12 default termination litigation, then the largest default termination in government history. Represented city government in an Administrative Procedure Act action against the US government to prevent the relocation of federal agencies to the suburbs outside of the city center. Significant experience representing commercial clients in complex litigation as national coordinating counsel in both state and federal courts, including class action tobacco litigation and pharmaceutical products liability litigation. PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE Northrop Grumman Corporation, Information Systems Sector, Senior Counsel Motorola, Inc., U.S. Federal Government Markets Division, Senior Counsel MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS American Bar Association – Public Contract Law Section American University, Washington College of Law, Adjunct Professor of Law PUBLICATIONS AND SPEECHES "Innovative Approaches to Legal Risk Management," Covington E-Alert (5/10/2013), Co-Author "The Government Contracts Update," Covington E-Alert (4/29/2013), Co-Author "The Government Contracts Update," Covington E-Alert (4/16/2013), Co-Author