Aron Beezley of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP outlines the Justice Department's noteworthy procurement fraud recoveries for fiscal year 2020. The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced1 that it obtained more than $2.2 billion in False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgments in the fiscal year ending September 29, 2020 ...
It is common knowledge among many human resources professionals that religious organizations generally are protected from religious discrimination lawsuits under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and most state anti-discrimination laws. For example, a Baptist organization may apply a preference for members of the Baptist Church in its hiring decisions ...
When Alabama’s Legislature convenes for its annual session on February 2, lawmakers will once again be asked to consider a bill that would provide certain Alabamians with access to medical cannabis ...
The information listed below is categorized by topic for your convenience and includes content from the previous week. Bradley is actively monitoring and engaging with relevant federal, state or local entities on issues related to the coronavirus. Please contact one of the authors if you have any questions. Click on a link below to view the full article, alert, blog, webinar recording or interview ...
Bradley’s Government Enforcement and Investigations Practice Group is pleased to present the False Claims Act: 2020 Year in Review, our annual review of significant False Claims Act (FCA) cases, developments and trends. Despite the pandemic and the smallest recoveries for the Department of Justice in over a decade, FCA enforcement remains robust. As always, the healthcare industry remains the most frequent subject of FCA cases and investigation ...
Current State of Shopping Centers Our legacy shopping centers are often well-located, near transportation routes, population centers and employment hubs. Post-recession enthusiasm for shopping encouraged the expansion of many retail stores and product lines, and rental rates for prime shopping locations continues to grow ...
Domestic extremism is not new, but heightened law enforcement scrutiny in the wake of the Capitol riots has added yet another layer of complexity to the jobs of already challenged AML compliance professionals and investigators ...
Aron Beezley of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP enumerates the key impacts of the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council's final rule adopting mandates of the executive order Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council recently issued a final rule1 that implements the requirements of the Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials Executive Order ...
The owners of multistate businesses must consider many factors when deciding how to structure their business ventures, and state taxation should not be overlooked. The accompanying tables can assist in that evaluation for limited liability companies and limited liability partnerships. In recent years, LLCs and, to a lesser extent, limited partnerships and LLPs have become the popular choice for structuring or restructuring multistate business entities ...
&The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in BGT Holdings LLC v. United States, 1 recently held that the government does not have the discretion to deny a contractor's request for equitable adjustment (REA) under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.245-1 (Government Property) where the conditions specified in that clause are present and the contractor is able to show financial loss ...
You’ve attended the webinars on navigating COVID-19. You’ve read the trade publication tips. You have implemented measures to protect your workers. So, you’re ahead of the game, right? Well, you’re certainly ahead of the Florida sheriff who reportedly instructed his employees not to wear masks in the office. If a visitor entered Sheriff Billy Wood’s offce with a mask, they were reportedly instructed to remove it ...
Coronavirus Insights & Updates The information listed below is categorized by topic for your convenience and includes content from the previous week. Bradley is actively monitoring and engaging with relevant federal, state or local entities on issues related to the coronavirus. Please contact one of the authors if you have any questions. Click on a link below to view the full article, alert, blog, webinar recording or interview ...
Like every other higher education leader, I spent most of the last 10 months reacting to the operational imperatives driven by the COVID-19 crisis. Each day presented a novel crisis, and just when we thought we’d see no more plot twists, a new one emerged. In the midst of that maelstrom and as the state’s higher education chief, I often found myself trying to find elusive time to process what these daily crises meant for our enterprise over the long term ...
In its conference on Feb. 19, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to consider two pending petitions for certiorari that could resolve a critical but deeply disputed issue that impacts both the False Claims Act and health care law. The cert petitions in those cases — U.S. v. Care Alternatives,[1] and Winter v ...
As we near the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, trademark maintenance deadlines in 2021 create new obstacles for registrants. To maintain a federal trademark registration, registrants must periodically file an affidavit of use under Section 8, swearing that the mark is in use in commerce or that the registrant has an acceptable excuse for nonuse. Recent office actions show that the U.S ...
As you already know, COVID-19 changed almost everything, and some of those things are likely here to stay (or at least linger for a while longer). One widespread change is the increased use of videoconferencing. In early 2020, a videoconference was a rarity, but now we Zoom in and out of classrooms, work meetings, and court appearances. Not surprisingly, the virtual world has reached the doctor’s office ...
Bradley attorneys Aron Beezley and Nathaniel Greeson highlight the administrative bid protest landscape in New York given the state's abundant acquisition economy. New York state's budget is the second largest in the country, and with it, New York has some of the most developed state acquisition laws and procedures in the country. Accordingly, New York provides comparatively robust bid protest rights when it comes to state-level bid protests ...
In 2020, telehealth went from promising ancillary issue to center stage in the healthcare industry. Regulators and law enforcement took notice. With enforcers’ attention now squarely on telehealth fraud and abuse, telehealth providers and companies are poised to be among the main targets for civil and criminal enforcement in the coming years. Webinar Recording Key Takeaways Telehealth is a key enforcement priority for federal and state enforcement agencies, including the U ...
Bradley attorneys Aaron Chastain, Lee Gilley, Riley Key, Jonathan Kolodziej, and Robert Maddox authored Chapter 11: Debt Collection Practices in the publication of Consumer Finance Law: Understanding Consumer Financial Services Regulations. A global pandemic, ensuing economic decline, and mandated changes from the Dodd-Frank Act have provided greater challenges and opportunities in the consumer markets resulting in rapid change in the regulatory environment for businesses ...
The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council recently issued its long-awaited final rule1 limiting the ability of civilian agencies to use the Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) procurement method. The final FAR rule — which took effect on February 16, 2021, and largely tracks the language contained in the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) final rule from 2019 2 — is codified at FAR 15.101-2 ...
With the new year comes a new president. Will the new year and administration also bring new water policy? Bet on it. Just as President Trump undid President Obama’s signature water policy decision—the Clean Water Rule, which clarified and arguably expanded federal water permitting jurisdiction—President Biden is likely to rewind many of President Trump’s water policy (and, more generally, environmental policy) decisions over the next four or more years ...
Hear directly from the CFPB about mortgage servicing in the COVID-19 era, including how the leadership transition is affecting the CFPB’s priorities and approach. From a webinar on March 3, Bradley hosted a Q&A session with Allison Brown of the CFPB's Office of Supervision Policy to discuss the CFPB’s supervisory expectations as the industry grapples with CARES implementation and other challenges arising from the coronavirus crisis ...
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), in Spartan Medical, Inc., B-419503,1 recently clarified the scope of its jurisdiction over bid protests involving an agency's use of its other transaction agreement (OTA) authority. The GAO's decision in this case is noteworthy because agencies are increasingly relying on OTAs to meet their procurement needs ...
Title reviews are the heartbeat of the due diligence process. When a buyer is considering acquiring a commercial property, it is the title review process that confirms the seller actually owns the property and provides an overview of all rights affecting such property ...
2020 was an especially active year for FCA enforcement. What does this tell us about compliance in the coming year? Bradley Government Enforcement and Investigations partners Jon Ferry, Ty Howard, and Brad Robertson discuss how the enforcement environment drives compliance, and the areas of risk companies need to focus on this year ...
