Mr. Abrahams is a founding partner of Abrahams Wolf-Rodda, LLC, a boutique government contracts and wage & hour law firm in the Washington DC metropolitan area. See www.awrcounsel.com. The practice includes traditional government contracts work (bid protests, claims, compliance advice, prime-sub disputes, etc.) and a wage & hour practice (spanning the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Service Contract Act, the Davis-Bacon Act, various Executive Orders, and state wage laws). In the latter, Mr. Abrahams represents mostly employers in class and collective actions, individual lawsuits, federal and state wage investigations, and self-audit compliance. At his new boutique law firm, Mr. Abrahams is now available to represent workers in their personal wage claims, including collective and class actions. Mr. Abrahams also has been retained to be an exemption classification consultant and expert witness in wage and hour disputes.

Mr. Abrahams was formerly a partner at Brown Rudnick LLP for almost 10 years and was at Epstein Becker & Green, PC for almost 25 years. He is the former Chairman of the American Bar Association, Public Contract Law Section, Employment Safety & Labor Committee. He is also a former adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School where he taught a course called “Federal Labor Standards.”

Starting in 1985, Mr. Abrahams co-authored more than nine books in the fields of government contracts and wage and hour law. His wage & hour publications include the: Fair Labor Standards Handbook for State, Local Governments and Schools; Employer's Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act; FLSA Employer Exemption Handbook; and Public Employer's Guide to Payroll Administration. In 2011, Mr. Abrahams also co-authored three booklets: Smart Guide to FLSA Exemptions; Do I have to pay My Employees for This? FLSA Working Time Essentials; and FLSA Overtime Basics. In the government contracts field, Mr. Abrahams co-authored the: Government Contracts Compliance Guide; Public Official’s Guide to e-Government; and Government Contractor’s Guide to Employment Law Compliance. Overlapping the government contracts and wage & hour field, Mr. Abrahams co-authored two Federal Publications (now West) Briefing Papers: The Service Contract Act; and The Davis-Bacon Act.

Mr. Abrahams teaches regularly for Federal Publications Seminars on the Service Contract Act and the Davis-Bacon Act. He has been a continuous speaker at ThomsonReuter’s Year in Review Conference and its predecessors since the late 1980s.

Matt Carter is the co-leader of Pillsbury’ s Government Contracts & Disputes practice. His practice includes litigating bid protests, conducting internal investigations, representing companies and individuals in suspension and debarment proceedings, and providing regulatory and compliance advice.

Matt, the leader of Pillsbury’s Bid Protests team, has achieved successful results for his clients in more than 50 bid protests at the Government Accountability Office, the Court of Federal Claims, and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Matt also is a leading suspension and debarment lawyer. He has successfully represented corporations and individuals before numerous civilian and defense suspension and debarment officials, including the Air Force, the Army, DLA, the EPA, and the Navy, to ensure their continued eligibility to participate in federal programs. Matt is active in the ABA’s Public Contracts section and has served as a vice-chair of that section’s Suspension and Debarment Committee. He has also successfully defended numerous defense contractors in False Claims Act litigation.

A former Division One athlete, Matt was named a 2022 “ Rising Star” in the government contracts field by Law360and was recognized as a 2023 “ Rising Star” in Government Contracts by Bloomberg Law. He has also been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star for Government Contracts in 2016 – 2018 and 2023 – 2024.

Ryan Berry co-founded Ward & Berry with Dan Ward in 2017. Although Ryan is active in all of the firm’s practice areas, his current client work comprises investigations, corporate compliance, and general counsel representation of government contractors.

Before co-founding Ward & Berry, Ryan was an equity partner in one of the largest global law firms. He has successfully handled significant commercial litigation matters through trial for national security, technology, and sports and entertainment clients.

Ryan is experienced in handling international disputes and investigations for government contractors and multi-national corporations. His work in this area has been particularly focused on the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Ryan has skillfully guided clients through investigations brought by the Inspector General (IG) of federal agencies, Congressional investigations, suspensions and proposed debarments.

W. Jay DeVecchio is a litigator and former Co-Chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Government Contracts and Public Procurement practice. Clients from the aerospace, technology, and health care sectors seek his representation in all facets of government procurement law, from bid protests to complex claims and disputes through suspension and debarment. He also represents clients in related issues such as criminal and civil fraud, qui tam actions, and internal investigations

Jay’s litigation successes include defeating a major qui tam action in a jury trial, prevailing in one of the largest defective pricing appeals tried to date, enjoining the Department of Defense for an improper debarment, winning the leading case on latent defects in government contracts, and achieving victory in the Eleventh Circuit's decision on false claims immunity for Medicare contractors.

He has been a guest instructor at the University of Virginia and the George Washington University Law School Government Contracts Program, and the American University Washington College of Law. Jay also conducts seminars on diverse subjects including claims, disputes, terminations, and data rights.

Aaron Dyer, Pillsbury’s Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense Practice Group Co-Leader, is a former federal prosecutor and experienced trial attorney focusing on complex criminal and civil litigation and regulatory enforcement actions. In addition, Aaron represents individuals and corporations in internal investigations and intellectual property litigation, emphasizing securities, health care, the False Claims Act, and intellectual property theft and piracy. He also advises clients on corporate governance issues and the implementation of corporate compliance programs. Aaron spent almost seven years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. While in the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, he tried numerous complex fraud cases, including securities, bank, tax, investment, and insurance fraud. In addition, he spearheaded the Internet and computer crime prosecutions for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, serving as the Computer and Telecommunications Crimes Coordinator. He also served as the acting chief and deputy chief of the Major Frauds Section. During that time, he handled numerous oral arguments in the Ninth Circuit.

Mr. Katz is a Counsel in Brown Rudnick’s Washington, DC office where he is a member of the Wage and Hour Group, a practice spanning the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Service Contract Act, the Davis-Bacon Act, and state wage laws. He represents mostly employers in class and collective actions, individual lawsuits, federal and state wage investigations, and self-audit compliance. Mr. Katz also has been retained to be an exemption classification consultant.

Mr. Katz is fluent in Hebrew.

Fernand Lavallee's practice focuses on litigation of, and counseling on, public procurements, and he is a recognized leader in intellectual property rights in government contracts. Fern is a trusted advisor on the public procurement of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI enhanced or augmented products and services, the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, contract and subcontract formation, administration, compliance, cybersecurity, suspension and debarment, due diligence, internal investigations, rights in patents (Bayh-Dole Act), rights in technical data and computer software, and dispute matters to clients in the aerospace, high-technology, information technology, and life sciences sectors. He litigates government contracts cases and prime contractor/subcontractor disputes before federal and state courts and brings, or intervenes and defends against bid protests before federal agencies, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and the Court of Federal Claims (COFC). Fern also brings claims before the Civilian and Defense Boards of Contract Appeals and COFC and size protests before the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Fern's clients engage in R&D and provide products and services to federal civilian and defense agencies, including the intelligence community, under contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA), and Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreements.

Fern has taught, written, and spoken on government contracts topics including Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence (FOCI) issues and due diligence in M&As involving government contractors. He presented a paper on socio-economic programs in U.S. federal procurements at the 1st Interdisciplinary Symposium on Public Procurement held in Italy and co-sponsored by the University of Rome Tor Vergata and the Faculty of Law of the University of Copenhagen. He is a vice chair of the ABA's Public Contract Law Section's IP Committee.

Anthony Lewis is co-head of S&C’s National Security practice, a member of the Firm’s Criminal Defense and Investigations Group, and co-head of the Firm’s Cybersecurity practice. His practice focuses on international and government investigations and on cybersecurity incident response and advice. A former supervisor in the National Security Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Mr. Lewis has particular expertise with matters involving economic and financial crime, sanctions, technology transfer, and export controls, cryptocurrencies, cybercrime, counterintelligence and other areas that implicate national security concerns for corporate clients and financial institutions.

Mr. Lewis has represented clients in internal investigations and regulatory enforcement proceedings, including with the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and financial regulators. He has advised clients in various sectors, including technology, industrials, financial services, and consumer goods.

Mauricio Paez advises Fortune 100 companies on legal issues related to digital transformations, virtual data services, global e-commerce, digital marketing, data protection, cybersecurity, technology sourcing and outsourcing, and emerging technology matters, such as IoT (Internet of Things), AI, blockchain and Web3, the industrial internet, and autonomous machines. A regular speaker and publisher, he is a recognized leader in these fields.

Mauricio assists clients with legal issues impacting their digital business, including industrial internet applications, consumer IoT protections, cloud services, big data analytics, AI and cognitive technologies, terrestrial and space-based commercial data services, data privacy, cybersecurity breach response and investigations, and global compliance. He helps clients develop and implement worldwide B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) digital strategies; compliance programs for addressing new legal risks; strategies and programs for generating and safeguarding digital assets; cross-border data transfers; and cybersecurity risk management. He also helps clients address these issues in commercial agreements and corporate transactions, such as joint ventures, contractual ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and investments.

In addition, Mauricio assists clients with data breach response and conducts data privacy assessments, information security compliance audits, and cyber investigations on a worldwide scale, including overseeing third-party forensic investigations. He defends clients against state and federal governmental agency cybersecurity and data protection compliance enforcement and investigations.

Mauricio's clients are in a variety of industries, such as the internet, technology, retail, financial services, communications, health care, utilities, automotive, aviation, satellite, and marketing.

He is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), the American Bar Association, and the New York State Bar Association.

Ashley Powers* advises a broad range of government clients on compliance with Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and FAR supplement requirements, with specific expertise in supply chain and cybersecurity. She regularly advises clients on complex data rights issues, with a focus on clients in the new and emerging technology space. In addition to her counseling practice, Ms. Powers maintains an active government contracts litigation practice, representing clients in investigations, bid protests, and contract claims.

Ms. Powers has extensive government experience, having most recently served as Senior Counsel in the Contract Law Division, Office of General Counsel, at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In that role, she developed CIA-wide supply chain and cybersecurity compliance programs and served as the agency's legal expert on these issues, including Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Ms. Powers was also the primary legal advisor with regard to the CIA's relationship with In-Q-Tel (IQT) and the agency's relationships with new and emerging technology companies more generally. Her practice included regularly advising on all aspects of the federal procurement process, focusing on data rights, organizational conflicts of interest, and Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigations. Finally, Ms. Powers served as lead counsel defending the CIA in bid protests and contract claims before the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Court of Federal Claims (COFC), and the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA). She also spent several years as an Attorney-Advisor in the Contract Law Division of the Office of General Counsel at the Department of Commerce (DOC) where she represented the Department in all aspects of government contracts-related litigation, assisted in the redevelopment of the Department's Suspension and Debarment program, and served as a legal advisor to the Department's Suspension and Debarment Official (SDO).