Law360 Again Names Arnold & Porter

January 22, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 22, 2014 -- For the second consecutive year, Law360 has named Arnold & Porter LLP’s Government Contracts practice to its “Practice Groups of the Year” list in a profile published on January 16. Law360 highlighted some of the group’s successes over the past year and related the significant body of work by the entire practice.

The firm successfully defended contract awardees in a number of high-stakes litigation matters. Craig Holman led a team to help Amazon Web Services LLC defend its award of a $600 million CIA cloud services contract from a challenge by IBM Corp. The firm also won claims dispute cases on behalf of Raytheon Co. in the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, further cementing a body of case law that has made it more difficult for the government to toll a six-year statute of limitations when it wants to pursue alleged billing discrepancies. The firm also represented Mission Essential Personnel in a bid protest challenge to $9.7 billion in contracts for linguist support in Afghanistan, and defended L-3 Communications in a protest over a $362 million U.S. Army information technology order, among other victories.

“Our clients come to us for the really difficult issues,” Paul Pompeo, who represented Raytheon in the ASBCA cases, told the publication. “They know that there are a lot of firms that they can go to for the day-to-day problems, and there's a push to do more work in-house. They come to us because they know we can handle the brain surgery, and we've shown we can do that year after year.”

In addition to the firm’s litigation strength, the Law360 editors noted, “Arnold & Porter also helps clients with a wide range of national security compliance concerns, including export control compliance, leveraging the experience of the many former government officials at the firm.”

According to the editors, “Arnold & Porter's deep bench of experts helped the firm represent United Technologies Corp. in an export compliance audit related to UTC's illegal exports of military software used to develop China's first modern military attack helicopter.” Partner John Barker, it was noted, headed an investigation that “spanned four continents and required scores of employee interviews and thousands of document reviews to assess UTC’s compliance practices and recommend compliance practices going forward.”

The firm’s 50-member Government Contracts practice, Law360 noted, recently added Charles Blanchard, a former general counsel at the Air Force and the Army, whose arrival bolsters a practice group that already includes John P. Barker, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Export Controls in the Clinton Administration; John B. Bellinger III, who served in the Bush Administration as the Legal Adviser for the Department of State and for the National Security Council; Jeffrey H. Smith, who served as the General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Clinton Administration; and Ronald D. Lee, who served as the General Counsel of the National Security Agency and as Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration.

Mark Colley, head of the firm’s Government Contracts and National Security practices, told Law360 that the firm is looking to stay on the cutting edge, exploring areas of law that are increasingly important to contractors, like cybersecurity and privacy laws, in order to maintain its status as an attractive destination for clients and top legal talent.

Arnold & Porter was one of five firms selected in the Government Contracts category. Law360 Practice Group of the Year winners were selected from nearly 550 submissions. Editors made their selections based on the significance of the litigation wins or deals worked on; the size and complexity of the litigation wins or deals worked on; and the number of significant, large or complex deals the group worked on or lawsuits the group won between November 1, 2012, and November 1, 2013.