Covington & Burling is bolstering its government contracts practice by adding Susan Cassidy as a partner in its Washington, D.C. office.
This marks Covington’s second high-profile addition to its government contracts practice in recent months and underscores the firm’s strong commitment to expand in this area of law. Robert Nichols joined the firm as co-chair of the government contracts practice in April.
Ms. Cassidy brings more than two decades of experience as an attorney in private practice and in-house, representing and counseling clients on a broad array of regulatory and litigation matters in the government contracts area.
Ms. Cassidy joins Covington from the leading defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corporation, where she was senior counsel in the company’s Information Systems Sector, supporting both the Intelligence and Defense markets. Most recently, she served as the lead counsel for the Defense Technologies Division. In this role, she provided government contracts legal advice in support of a wide variety of programs, including those involving missile defense integration, enterprise IT infrastructure solutions, cybersecurity, combat systems integration, identity management and biometrics, and cloud computing. She also has extensive experience as a government contracts and litigation partner at a large international law firm.
“Susan has an unusual breadth of experience in the government contracts field–including litigation, advisory and transactional matters,” said Timothy Hester, chair of the firm’s management committee. “Her in-house experience at a leading defense contractor will provide unique insights into the needs of government contractors in today’s competitive defense environment, and will be a strong complement to our many practice areas that can provide high-value services to clients in this industry.”
Ms. Cassidy has significant experience conducting and resolving internal investigations and audits in response to inquiries from the Justice Department, various inspectors general, and the Defense Contract Audit Agency. Ms. Cassidy regularly advises contractors on compliance issues involving procurement statutes and regulations, the development of claims and REAs, and the resolution of prime-subcontractor disputes. She has represented clients at all stages of federal and state court and agency litigation, including bid protests before the Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
“We are thrilled that Susan is joining Covington, given her wide range of government contracts experience,” said Alan Pemberton, who co-chairs Covington’s government contracts practice group with Robert Nichols. “Susan adds to our well-rounded ability to lead matters in key areas, including our government contracts work for the aerospace and defense industries,” Mr. Nichols said.
Covington’s strong commitment to expanding its government contracts practice and the depth of related practice areas attracted Ms. Cassidy to the firm. “I look forward to working with the government contracts group and helping to develop a leading practice in the field,” Ms. Cassidy said. “Covington’s use of inter-disciplinary teams across practices allows the firm to expand its representation of defense contractors in a variety of contexts.”
Ms. Cassidy received her law degree from the American University Washington College of Law, where she was an editor for the American University Law Review. She received her undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Ms. Cassidy also currently serves as an adjunct professor of law at American University’s Washington College of Law.
