Alston & Bird Government Contracts Blog

Jessica Sharron

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About Jessica Sharron

Jessica Sharron is a partner in the firm’s Construction & Government Contracts Group. Jessica's practice focuses primarily in the specialized fields of government contracts and construction litigation.

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Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity: Biden Implements New Reporting Requirements on IT Government Contractors

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On May 12. 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order aimed at improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity by curtailing data breaches and malicious cyber campaigns. The Order comes in response to a number of recent cybersecurity incidents, including a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline Co. that caused a temporary shutdown, resulting in gas shortages along the Eastern Seaboard and a nationwide spike in fuel prices. The Order seeks to establish a partnership between the Federal Government and the private sector to ensure a more secure cyber environment, creating a Cyber Safety Review [...]Read more

Affiliation and Control Under SBA

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The Paycheck Protection Loan program created by the CARES Act thrust the U.S. Small Business Administration’s complicated size standards into the spotlight for many companies that never before waded into those muddy waters.  None of SBA’s rules frustrated businesses that otherwise thought they were “small” more than the rule of “affiliation”, which requires concerns, when determining size, to include the size of other entities under common control.  A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims is a timely reminder that the concept of “affiliation”, in the context of federal [...]Read more

DoD Weighs In As Federal Contractors Search for Guidance on Implementation of Section 889 Part B

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To curb the threat of U.S. foreign adversaries gaining access to critical infrastructure and stealing sensitive information, Congress passed Section 889 ("Prohibition on Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services or Equipment") as part of the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”). There are two prohibitions in the statute, Part A and Part B.  Part A, which became effective on August 13, 2019, prohibits the government from “buying” certain “covered telecommunications equipment or services.” (NDAA Section 889(a)(1)(A)).  Part B, which is slated [...]Read more

In the Aftermath of the Granston Memo, the DOJ Addresses (Some of) Grassley’s Concerns

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As previously discussed in a Law360 article by Jeffrey Belkin, the DOJ’s Granston memo, dated January 10, 2018, “advised DOJ attorneys that, in tandem with their decisions to decline intervention in qui tam suits, they should consider proactively seeking dismissal under 31 U.S.C. § 3730(c)(2)(A).” On September 4, 2019, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) wrote to Attorney General William Barr expressing his concerns about the DOJ’s implementation of the Granston memo, a topic that we noted Grassley had previewed during Barr’s confirmation hearing. While recognizing the government should [...]Read more

Fifth Circuit Ruling Shows Government’s Actions Are Key Under Escobar

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Government contractors continue to closely follow the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark False Claims Act decision in Universal Health v. U.S. ex rel Escobar. Most recently, in U.S. ex rel Harman v. Trinity Industries, the Fifth Circuit considered the heightened standard whistleblowers must meet under Escobar to prove materiality if the government continued to pay claims despite its knowledge of misconduct allegations. In Trinity Industries, Trinity, a manufacturing company and government contractor, appealed the denial of its motion for judgment as a matter of law. The underlying [...]Read more