Combating Fraud in Government Procurement

Cleveland Lawrence III is a Partner at Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, based in Washington, DC. He is  a Co-Chair of the firm’s Whistleblower Rights practice group – which focuses on representing  whistleblowers at all stages of litigation under federal and state False Claims Act laws, the IRS,  SEC, and CFTC whistleblower programs, the Motor Vehicle Safety Whistleblower Act, and a variety of anti-retaliation laws and regulations. Cleveland has been a thought leader on  whistleblower, fraud, and compliance issues for more than a decade. 

Cleveland began his career as an associate in the DC office of a “BigLaw” firm, where he spent more than six years working on a variety of fraud, compliance, ethics, and whistleblower matters  as defense counsel. After leaving private practice in 2008, he spent eight years with Taxpayers  Against Fraud and its sister organization, Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund (TAFEF) – first as Director of Legal Education, and later as Co-Executive Director. During that time, he regularly met with whistleblowers, federal and state government officials, private attorneys, and  the public to explore ways combat fraud. He also served as editor-in-chief of TAFEF’s law  journal, the “False Claims Act & Qui Tam Quarterly Review.” After leaving TAFEF, Cleveland  returned to private practice, and joined Mehri & Skalet in 2018. He now serves on TAFEF’s Board of Directors, and is Chair of its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice standing  committee. 

Throughout his distinguished career, Cleveland has worked with the highest levels of all three  branches of Government to shape whistleblower law and policy. In addition to arguing before  federal district and circuit courts on behalf of his own whistleblower clients, he has authored and  filed numerous amicus curiae briefs in federal and state courts across the country – including the  U.S. Supreme Court. Cleveland has also partnered with high-ranking officials from the U.S.  Department of Justice to coordinate the nation’s largest annual False Claims Act conference – which often featured Directors of the IRS, SEC, and CFTC whistleblower programs. Moreover,  he has testified before Congress and state legislatures regarding FCA and whistleblower-related  legislation; represented a testifying witness during Congressional committee hearings; prepared  draft federal and state legislation; and submitted multiple comment letters to federal agencies  implementing Dodd-Frank and other whistleblower reward programs. 

Cleveland has examined whistleblowing from multiple perspectives and frequently speaks about  the topic to a variety of audiences, including: conferences, seminars, and other educational  events for whistleblowers and attorneys sponsored by the American Bar Association, the Federal  Bar Association, the National Healthcare Anti-Fraud Association, TAFEF, and others; law  students, graduate students, compliance officers, and other groups; and media outlets such as  Law360, POLITICO, the Corporate Crime Reporter, The CPA Journal, and the Whistleblower  Revolution podcast. 

Cleveland received a B.A. from Georgetown University and he graduated, with honors, from The  George Washington University Law School, where he was a member of the Public Contracts  Law Journal. A native of New Orleans, he is a founder and president of the Lagniappe  Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides scholarship assistance to  deserving college-bound graduates from his alma mater, Edna Karr High School.

Sara McLean is an Assistant Director in the Commercial Litigation Branch (Fraud Section), Civil Division, Department of Justice and is responsible for leading the implementation of the Department’s Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative.  Before becoming an Assistant Director in March 2010, she was a Trial Attorney in the Fraud Section for over ten years. She has handled and supervised a wide variety of False Claims Act matters in the areas of procurement, healthcare, mortgage, and minerals royalty fraud.  Some of her most significant matters have included General Services Administration defective pricing cases against major information technology companies, nationwide home healthcare fraud investigations, Federal Housing Administration loan guarantee cases, Department of Energy nuclear safety investigations, and natural gas royalties fraud litigation.  She has received numerous honors and awards for her work at the Department.  Ms. McLean graduated from Princeton University and Yale Law School and clerked for the Honorable John W. Bissell (D.N.J).   

David B. Robbins is a partner and co-chair of Jenner & Block’s Government Contracts Practice. Mr. Robbins is an experienced litigator, investigations lawyer, and strategic business counselor with a broad skillset focused on ethics, compliance, M&A/diligence, investigations, crisis management, and enforcement defense for government contractors, grant recipients, and regulated industries.

Mr. Robbins advises clients on a range of litigation matters, including civil False Claims Act defense, claims, requests for equitable adjustment, whistleblower reprisal defense, and prime/sub disputes. He also handles matters involving high-stakes, complex internal investigations, mandatory disclosures, claims, trade secrets litigation, ethics/compliance, conflicts of interest, fraud and public corruption defense, bid protests, General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule contracting, Procurement Integrity Act, Anti-Kickback Act, and suspension and debarment. 

As a trusted business advisor, Mr. Robbins provides strategic advice to executives and in-house counsel on their most pressing business needs, including M&A due diligence, mitigating issues found during diligence, and post merger integration. Mr. Robbins actively counsels companies concerning COVID-19 incident response and the provision of COVID-19 countermeasures such as vaccines and PPE to the US government. Mr. Robbins has represented audit committees and special board committees in high stakes, government facing matters. In Chambers USA, clients describe him as a “[c]reative strategic thinker,” emphasizing that “he finds opportunities where other lawyers have given up.” 

Mr. Robbins is a former Air Force General Counsel’s office senior lawyer where he ran the global Air Force’s Procurement Fraud Remedies Office and served as acting Suspending and Debarring Official and Deputy General Counsel (Contractor Responsibility). Mr. Robbins advised Air Force, Defense, and Intelligence Community senior leaders on a wide range of acquisition issues. During his tenure, he and his teams were responsible for approximately 1,000 fraud cases and 600 suspension/debarment cases per year. Mr. Robbins also co-ran the Department of Defense Procurement Fraud Working Group, a collection of agents, lawyers, auditors, and acquisition officials who gathered monthly to discuss best practices and set standards, with an intense focus on False Claims Act matters. He was also a member of the Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee. These two committees coordinated the operations of the government’s procurement and grant fraud organization, setting practices that remain in use today. 

Mr. Robbins frequently speaks and publishes on government contracts topics, including in Thomson Reuters Government Contracts Year in Review. He is the primary author and editor of the ABA Publications peer-reviewed book, The Procurement Fraud Guidebook: System, Stakeholders, and Response Strategies. 

Mr. Robbins earned his BA from Yale University and received his JD and MBA from the University of Maryland.

Jessica Tillipman is the Assistant Dean for Government Procurement Law Studies and Government Contracts Advisory Council Professorial Lecturer in Government Contracts Law, Practice & Policy. She also teaches Anti-Corruption & Compliance, a course that focuses on anti-corruption, ethics, and compliance issues in government procurement.

Prior to joining GW Law, Dean Tillipman served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lawrence S. Margolis of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and was an associate at Jenner & Block, where she specialized in Government Contracts and White Collar Criminal Defense.

Dean Tillipman is a Senior Editor of the “The FCPA Blog”—a leading Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resource on the internet. She has also published numerous articles that address legal and policy issues involving anti-corruption, government procurement, white-collar crime, and government ethics law.

Dean Tillipman is also a co-chair of the American Bar Association, International Anti-Corruption Committee, a Faculty Advisor to the Public Contract Law Journal, and an Advisory Board member of The Government Contractor. She frequently organizes and presents at domestic and international government procurement and anti-corruption conferences and colloquia, and her legal commentary has been featured in numerous domestic and international media outlets.

Dean Tillipman is a member of the bars of the United States Court of Federal Claims, the state of Virginia, and the District of Columbia. She graduated cum laude from Miami University (Oxford, OH) in 2000 and obtained her JD, with honors, from the George Washington University Law School in 2003.