By: Margaret M. Cassidy & Andrew Swick In February 2026, the Department of Justice did something unprecedented in the nearly four decades since Congress created the modern foreign‑investment review system: it went to court to force a foreign company to sell a U.S. business. The target was Suirui International, a Hong Kong–based subsidiary of a...
By: Margaret M. Cassidy & Jelena Tasic One of the simplest policies a company issues to its employees is control of their devices. It is remarkable how often that edict is not followed: left in a car then stolen; unmanned at a trade show booth while logged in—trade secrets accessed; and as General Electric (GE)...
By: Margaret M. Cassidy & Jelena Tasic On April 30, 2026, President Trump issued an executive order Promoting Efficiency, Accountability, and Performance in Federal Contracting directing federal agencies to use “best business practices to protect taxpayer dollars, hold contractors accountable, and achieve demonstrable returns on investment.” How? By using firm-fixed price contracts that define outcomes...
By: Margaret M. Cassidy & Andrew Swick Non-U.S. defense contractors even if partners, allies or friendly to the U.S. looking to sell directly to the Department of Defense (DoD) or to a prime or higher tier sub, often get lost in the foggy procurement laws and regulations that dictate when DoD can purchase non-U.S. items....
By: Margaret M. Cassidy DOJ is delivering a hard lesson to two former U.S. military pilots: teaching Chinese military pilots to fly can be an illegal export and a crime for which you get arrested. Most people think export regulations only control the export of things: equipment, software, or technical data. But that is not...
By: Margaret M. Cassidy & Andrew Swick The first stage of the FY2027 Appropriations process has essentially wrapped, with congressional member’s offices now processing request submissions from constituents and stakeholders before moving them to subcommittee staff for bill drafting and markup. Coming out of this, it is helpful to reflect on some key takeaways and...
By: Margaret M. Cassidy & Andrew Swick The Anthropic-Department of Defense (DoD) conflict raises compelling legal and policy issues, but these debates don’t help a business make payroll. [Click here for The Defense Salon article with detailed background on this conflict and here for an update on the court cases.] For federal government contractors, businesses...
By: Margaret M. Cassidy & Jelena Tasic Background The Anthropic-Department of Defense (DoD) battle started earlier this year when, over social media, DoD designated Anthropic a “supply chain risk” and along with the White House restricted the use of Anthropic products, particularly its Claude AI models, initially across the whole federal government. DoD and the...
Before a business can pursue federal government contracts it must register in SAM. Here are the basics on what that means and where founders and PE-backed businesses get tripped up. Register in SAM.gov — It’s Free SAM, the System for Award Management is the federal government’s vendor management database and every entity pursuing a prime...
Who Am I? A philosophical question that people have asked themselves for centuries is, “Who am I?” A big question that arguably we spend our lives trying to answer but never really get there. A question that is closely related to “Who am I” that you may be asking of your business is, “Am I...
