The Rise of OTAs in Defense Contracting: Opportunities, Risks, and What Contractors Need to Know
Podcast - Navigating the Updated SF-328 Form
Podcast - A Comparative Guide to Obtaining an FCL: DCSA vs. the Intelligence Community
Diversifying Your Contract Pipeline by Maximizing Opportunities through the DOD’s Mentor Protégé Program
A Comprehensive Overview of FOCI Mitigation
Podcast - Defense Dynamics: Navigating the Post-Election Landscape for the National Security Sector, Part 2
Mitigating FOCI Under Section 847
Episode 345 -- Raytheon Pays $950 Million to Resolve Fraud, FCPA, ITAR and False Claims Act Violations
Everyone Come to Play: Exploring FOCI Mitigation Instruments
Defense Dynamics: Navigating the Post-Election Landscape for the National Security Sector
Podcast - Navigating M&A Due Diligence: Safeguarding Security Clearances
Podcast - Change Condition Packages: Tips for Cleared Contractors
Podcast - Corporate Documents in the Context of Clearances
Navigating Personnel Security Clearances (PCLs)
Cybersecurity Insights: Updates on CMMC Implementation and CUI Identification
What Is an FCL and How Do I Obtain One?
Protecting Our Nation’s Data: Cybersecurity Compliance for Government Contractors
Intellectual Property In Department of Defense Contracting
The When, Where, Why and How of CMMC with Fernando Machado
On April 15, 2025, the Department of Defense (DoD) released official guidance on Organizationally Defined Parameters (ODPs) appearing in the newly published NIST SP 800-171 Revision 3. At the same time, the DoD reaffirmed...more
U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contractors with foreign ownership, control, or influence (FOCI) soon will face new requirements. Though cleared DOD contractors have long been bound by FOCI obligations, the new rule will...more
What does DMSMS mean? DMSMS stands for Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages. It is the loss or impending loss of manufacturers or suppliers of items, raw materials, or software. In other words, DMSMS...more
After years of anticipation, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council has announced the arrival of its proposed rule to enhance the safeguarding of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in federal contracts (the...more
Part of the Biden Administration’s push to enhance U.S. cybersecurity capabilities has focused on imposing new requirements on government contractors. The 2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy suggested, for example, that...more
The Department of Defense (DoD) published a Final Rule earlier this month formally implementing the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program. This Final Rule is the culmination of five years of work to...more
U.S. Attorney Nikolas P. Kerest recently highlighted the severity of fraud by government contractors and subcontractors, emphasizing the importance of upholding the integrity of government procurement programs. These remarks...more
In addition to prohibiting the flow-down of non-mandatory FAR/DFARS clauses (which we talk about here), the Department of Defense (“DOD”) Final Rule in connection with the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement...more
On December 14, 2023, the House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (NDAA), following the Senate’s passage a few days earlier. The President is expected to sign the NDAA into...more
A seven-year long False Claims Act suit comes to an end after Aerojet Rocketdyne reaches a $9 million settlement agreement for its alleged false certification of compliance with cybersecurity requirements. In the settlement...more
The Canadian Institute’s 11th Annual Forum on U.S. Export & Re-Export Compliance for Canadian Operations will take place in Toronto on January 25–27! IN-PERSON and LIVESTREAM options available. Over the last decade, this...more
Defense contractors and their subcontractors and supply chains that have been preparing for the challenge of complying with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) recently received some welcome news from the...more
- Akin Gump is hosting a Webinar tomorrow, August 6, 2020, at 12:00 p.m. (EST) to discuss Section 889, the implementing regulations, and the grant and loan restrictions also effective August 13, 2020. - On July 14, 2020,...more
A. Introduction and Key Take-Aways - The Department of Defense’s (DOD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program provides a metric for independent third parties to use in assessing and certifying the...more
January 2020 was a very important month for DOD’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) initiative. Last week, on January 31, 2020, DOD issued CMMC “Version 1.0” to the public....more
- DoD has released the final version of the CMMC framework. - DoD anticipates that CMMC requirements will appear in a limited number of solicitations starting in October 2020 and that they will appear in all DoD...more
On January 30, the US Department of Defense (DoD) released version 1.0 of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) framework, which will require DoD contractors and subcontractors to obtain third-party...more
On January 7, 2020, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”) published a proposed rule seeking to amend the NASA Federal Regulation Supplement regarding counterfeit electronic parts. The proposed rule would...more
2019 has been a year of pivotal developments for defense contractors in the realm of cybersecurity compliance. The Department of Defense (DoD) issued six guidance memoranda to assist its acquisition personnel in developing...more
A new Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), "Reporting of Nonconforming Items to the Government Industry Data Exchange Program," will become effective on December 23, 2019. The new FAR provision (FAR 46.317) and clause (FAR...more
We recently wrote about the FAR Council’s release of an interim rule implementing restrictions on procurements involving certain Chinese telecommunications hardware manufacturers and service providers, such as Huawei and ZTE....more
Over the past several months, this blog has analyzed several key provisions of the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that impact government contractors. This post briefly summarizes a variety of other...more
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING - The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense released a class deviation, effective immediately, that implements section 1006 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019. The...more
The Department of Defense (DOD) and its component services and agencies are taking several independent steps to assess and enhance their cyber and supply chain security that will directly or indirectly affect DOD contractors...more
SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION - House Small Business Committee Calls for a Status Update on FAR Revision of Limitations on Subcontracting. Last week, House Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot and Ranking...more