Partner, Los Angeles
444 South Flower Street
8th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071-2901

TEL: 213.243.6200
FAX: 213.243.6330
EMAIL: tabbott@mckennalong.com

PROFILE

Tom Abbott currently serves as National Chair of the Government Contracts Practice at McKenna Long & Aldridge, the largest and oldest such practice in the United States. Since joining the firm in 1983, he has worked on a wide variety of complex administrative, international, civil and criminal government contract issues. During the 23 years of his career, he's argued cases before California and federal trial courts, the United States Court of Federal Claims and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Several of his cases have involved claims in excess of $100 million. Tom also successfully recovered approximately $20 million in a claim under Public Law 85-804 in only sixteen weeks.

Tom has been very involved with service contracts, including the resolution of a dispute concerning the largest A-76 procurement ever awarded. He is active in the day-to-day counseling of contractors supporting the government's move to privatization, outsourcing, and commercial contracting. His practice also includes the implementation of compliance and ethics training programs and internal investigations. He has participated in the voluntary disclosure program at DOD since its inception.

Tom was directly involved in the resolution by international arbitration or mediation of contract disputes involving NATO, and the governments of Spain, Greece and Egypt, as well as commercial disputes with French, Korean and Japanese companies. He has been extensively involved in counseling and litigation involving FMF, FMS and USAID contracts. Tom routinely assists clients on classified contract, facilities clearance, and personnel clearance issues.

He has in-depth knowledge of government procurement law, including actions under the False Claims Act; bid protests; rights in data; product liability issues involving the "government contractor defense;" subcontract disputes; and contract claim and termination issues. He is highly skilled in cases involving alleged defective pricing and cost accounting standards violations. Tom has comprehensive experience in handling complex claims involving technology questions, including software design and development, system engineering, test and inspection, quality assurance and configuration management.

Tom graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served as a Surface Warfare Officer for seven years, including tours as an Executive Support Officer for two Secretaries of Defense, Harold Brown and Casper Weinberger.