The United States Court of Federal Claims is pleased to announce its Seventh Annual Law Day Observance Luncheon, which will be held on May 7, 2010 at Noon (registration will be made available in mid-March at this website). The luncheon will feature special guest speaker Elena Kagan, Solicitor General of the United States. The event will be held at the Willard Intercontinental, 14th Street & Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC.
Elena Kagan was confirmed as the 45th Solicitor General of the United States in March 2009. Prior to her confirmation, Elena Kagan was the Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law and the 11th Dean of Harvard Law School. During her nearly six-year tenure as Dean, Harvard Law School expanded and enhanced its faculty, modernized its curriculum, developed new campus facilities, promoted public service, and improved the student experience.
A leading scholar of administrative law, Kagan came to Harvard Law School as a visiting professor in 1999 and became Professor of Law in 2001. While on the faculty, Kagan taught administrative law, constitutional law, civil procedure, and seminars on issues involving the separation of powers. She was appointed Dean of the Law School in 2003.
From 1995 to 1999, Kagan served in the White House, first as Associate Counsel to the President (1995-96) and then as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council (1997-99). In those positions she played a key role in the executive branch’s formulation, advocacy, and implementation of law and policy in areas ranging from education to crime to public health.
Kagan launched her academic career at the University of Chicago Law School, where she became an assistant professor in 1991 and a tenured professor of law in 1995. In 1993, Kagan received the graduating students’ award for teaching excellence.
Kagan clerked for Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1986 to 1987. The next year, she clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. She worked as an associate in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly from 1989 to 1991.
Kagan received her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Princeton in 1981. She attended Worcester College, Oxford, as Princeton’s Daniel M. Sachs Graduating Fellow, and received an M. Phil. in 1983. She then attended Harvard Law School, where she was supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review, and graduated magna cum laude in 1986.
The Court of Federal Claims Bar Association proudly announces Timothy R. Wyatt, a third-year law student at Wake Forest University School of Law, as the winner of its 2009 Law Student Writing Competition. For his efforts, Mr. Wyatt will receive the first prize of $1,500.
Mr. Wyatt’s thought-provoking paper, In Search of "Reasonable Compensation": Patent Infringement by Defense Contractors with the Authorization and Consent of the U.S. Government will be published on the Court of Federal Claims website in the coming weeks.
The Bar Association and its Educational Outreach Committee would like to thank all the students who submitted papers to its inaugural writing competition. We received many thoughtful papers on a diverse set of topics, including the implications of the Omnibus Autism Proceedings and the Truth in Negotiation Act as it relates to government contracts. However, Mr. Wyatt’s paper was judged best. The judges found it well-written, informative, and on a topic squarely within the Court’s jurisdiction. The judges awarded only one prize this year. Submissions came from students at a number of law schools across the country.
The Court of Federal Claims Bar Association, a non-profit public interest organization, introduced the writing competition within the past year as a means of pursuing its educational mission of broadening the public’s knowledge of the Court of Federal Claims and its unique jurisdiction. The Bar Association would like to thank the members of the Court community who provided advice and counsel and generally lent their support throughout the development of the competition.
The Winter 2010 newsletter is now available - click here to view.
Kenneth R. Harkins, 88, who served for almost 30 years as a judge for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, died October 8, 2009 at the Goodwin House retirement home in the Baileys Crossroads area of Fairfax County. He had Alzheimer's disease.
Judge Harkins joined the Court of Federal Claims in 1971 and presided over cases brought by people making financial claims against the federal government. He retired in 2000, when he was named a senior judge.
Before joining the court, Judge Harkins had spent 16 years as a counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee under Chairman Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.).
Kenneth Richard Harkins was born in Cadiz, Ohio, and served as a forward observer in the Army's 14th Armored Division during World War II. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge and received the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart.
He graduated from Ohio State University in 1943 and received his law degree from Ohio State in 1948. He came to Washington in 1949 and worked for the Housing and Home Finance Agency (the predecessor of the Department of Housing and Urban Development) and as a trial lawyer with the Justice Department's antitrust division before serving with the House Judiciary Committee.
Judge Harkins lived in Arlington County and enjoyed hiking and travel. He volunteered with the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, helping with trail maintenance. Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Helen Dozer Harkins of Arlington; two children, M. Elaine Harkins of Denver and Richard A. Harkins of Vienna; and three granddaughters.
Mrs. Harkins and the family have suggested that any donations be made in Judge Harkins’ name to an American Bar Association pro bono program of the donor’s choosing.
This year the Bar Association's governing board agreed unanimously to award the Randolph W. Thrower Award to Brett Stohs and Dan Buchner from Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP. The Thrower Award is named in honor of the Bar Association's first president and is the Bar Association's highest award recognizing exceptional service. The award recipients were honored at the Bar Association’s Annual Meeting on November 18, 2009.
Over a period of almost 3 years, Brett and Dan have devoted more than 200 hours toward helping the Bar Association achieve 501(c)(3) non-profit tax exempt status, which the Bar Association achieved this past June. Achieving 501(c)(3) status will help the Bar Association in its continuing efforts to best serve the interests of the bench and bar and to support the Association's numerous and expanding educational and philanthropic endeavors.
Also recognized for their service to the Bar Association at the Annual Meeting were John Buckley, former Acting Clerk of the Court, and outgoing Board members Alexis Babcock, Don Grove, Steve Gillingham, and John Williamson.
Central High School, the nation’s only high school authorized to award Bachelor of Arts degrees upon graduation, has inducted alumnus Judge Lawrence S. Margolis of Washington, DC into its Hall of Fame. Established in 1836, Central High is America’s second-oldest public high school and its first city-wide magnet school, with rigorous academic admissions standards. It has graduated more classes than any other public high school in the country. Of Central’s tens of thousands of alumni, only 86 have been named to its Hall of Fame, including an astronaut, Nobel Laureate, Olympian, and internationally-known scientists, jurists, artists, and academicians.
On to Drexel and GWU Law
Following his graduation, with honors, from Central, Judge Margolis went on to The Drexel Institute of Technology (now, Drexel University) where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering; he then moved to Washington, DC, where he served as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent Office during the day and attended the George Washington University (GWU) Law School at night. After receiving a J.D. degree from the law school, he served as patent counsel for the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory and then embarked on a series of assignments as a prosecutor: first, Assistant Attorney General for the District of Columbia, then Special Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice and Trial Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and finally Assistant U.S. District Attorney for the District of Columbia.
In 1971, he was appointed a Magistrate-Judge for U.S. District Court in Washington, DC. Eleven years later, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to a judgeship on the United States Court of Federal Claims, a position in which he continues to serve.
Honors, Awards Follow
Both Drexel and GWU have presented Judge Margolis with their Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award; Drexel also named him as one of its 100 most outstanding graduates, and GWU honored him with a special Service Award. During his tenure as president of the National GWU Law Alumni, Judge Margolis was instrumental in saving the night law school. He is a former trustee of Drexel, and former member of the board of managers of Central.
Active in the Bar Association of the District of Columbia, he served as an officer and editor of its Young Lawyers Association, hosting educational TV shows and a weekly community service radio interview show; he also co-founded a much-needed Big Brothers project for juveniles in correctional institutions, personally mentoring a number of these teen-age boys. Judge Margolis was a director of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia and, for seven years, editor of its journal, and was honored by both the Association and its Young Lawyers Association for outstanding service. He has served as chair of two American Bar Association divisions: Special Court Judges, and Federal, State, and Local Judges. He is also a member of the Inn of Courts and the recipient of many awards and honors from his peers.
Rotary, Other Community Service
In 1974, Judge Margolis joined the Rotary Club of Washington, DC, and subsequently became president of the club and, shortly thereafter, was elected Rotary International District Governor for District 7620, responsible for overseeing all 65 Rotary clubs in that District, which includes Washington and Central Maryland. Several years ago, he recommended that the Washington Rotary Club institute a project by which its members purchase and present age-appropriate dictionaries to each third-grade DC public school student every year; the Club has now distributed these dictionary-research books to 25,000 third-graders in Washington, DC public schools.
He is also a past president of the Rotary Foundation of Washington, DC, and has served Rotary International (RI) in numerous executive capacities: e.g., RI Representative to the Organization of American States, RI Representative to the World Bank, RI President’s Representative, and RI District 7620 Delegate to the triennial Rotary International Council on Legislation. For his extraordinary service to Rotary, he has received many high awards, including “Rotarian of the Decade+.” He has been an active supporter of many other local entities, including Center for Inspired Teaching, Theodore Roosevelt High School, Washington Civic Opera, and Rotaract, and often sits as a Moot Court Judge for law students at a number of universities. He is a frequent speaker on the law, both in the U.S. and abroad.
The Court of Federal Claims has posted a Notice of Proposed Amendments to Rules on its website and has invited public comment on the proposed amendments. Comments, addressed to Hazel Keahey, Clerk of the Court, must be received by December 18, 2009. The proposal includes three sets of amendments:
First is a set of substantive changes to RCFC 8(c) (Affirmative Defenses), 13(f) (Omitted Counterclaim), and 15(a) (Amendments Before Trial) and the addition of new RCFC 62.1 (Indicative Ruling on Motion for Relief That is Barred by a Pending Appeal). These proposed changes to the court’s rules are identical to the substantive changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that are scheduled to become effective on December 1, 2009.
Next are changes to RCFC 6 (Computing and Extending Time; Time for Motion Papers) followed by related changes to RCFC 12 (Defenses and Objections), 32 (Using Depositions in Court Proceedings), 42(c)(2) (Consolidation; Separate Trials – Separate Determinations of Liability and Damages – Motion for Reconsideration), 52(b) (Findings and Conclusions by the Court; Judgment on Partial Findings – Amended or Additional Findings), 53(f)(2) (Masters – Action on the Master's Order, Report, or Recommendations – Time to Object or Move to Adopt or Modify), 55(b)(2) (Default; Default Judgment – Entering a Default Judgment – By the Court), 59 (New Trial Reconsideration ; Altering or Amending a Judgment), 62(a) (Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment – Automatic Stay; Exceptions for Injunctions and Patent Accountings), 65(b)(2) (Injunctions and Restraining Orders – Temporary Restraining Order – Contents; Expiration), and 68 (Offer of Judgment), and Appendices B (Vaccine Rules), D (Procedure in Congressional Reference Cases), and F (Procedures in Tax Partnership Cases), all of which are consistent with the time-computation changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that are scheduled to become effective on December 1, 2009.
Finally, a set of substantive changes proposed by the court to RCFC 14 (Third Party Practice), 23 (Class Actions), 32 (Using Depositions in Court Proceedings), 54(d) (Judgment; Costs – Cost’s; Attorney's Fees), and 83.1(b) (Attorneys – Admission to Practice), and Vaccine Rule 5 (Preliminary Status Conference and Tentative Findings and Conclusions).
Practitioners before the court are strongly encouraged to carefully review all of the proposed amendments, as well as the final version of the amended rules once published. The court’s notice and its description of the proposed changes can be found at: www.uscfc.uscourts.gov under “announcements.” The Rules Committee of the Bar Association will be reviewing the proposed amendments and evaluating whether comments should be submitted to the court on behalf of the Bar Association. If you wish to have your comments considered by the Rules Committee, please forward them by email to Don Grove (DGrove@nordhauslaw.com ) and Marc Smith (Marc.Smith@usdoj.gov) as soon as possible to allow time to review and compile your comments.
The following were elected to serve the Bar Association at the Annual Meeting of the Membership and Elections on November 18, 2009:
Officers:
2010 President*: Steve Hollman, Hogan & Hartson LLP
2010 President-Elect: Bryant Snee, Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, U.S. DOJ
2010 Treasurer: Lewis Wiener, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP
2010 Secretary: Rob Stewart, Tax Division, Court of Federal Claims Section, U.S. DOJ
Board of Governors:
Mary Abate, Tax Division, Court of Federal Claims Section, U.S. DOJ (3 year term)
Brad Fagg, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP (completing 2 years of an unexpired term)
Alan LoRe, Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, U.S. DOJ (3 year term)
Kevin Mullen, Cooley Godward Kronish (3 year term)
Maureen Rudolph, Environment & Natural Resources Division, U.S. DOJ (3 year term)
* Pursuant to Article V, Section 5.2 of the Bylaws, the President-Elect automatically succeeds to the position of President at the installation of officers.
On October 12, 2009, Hazel C. Keahey assumed her duties as the Clerk of Court of the United States Court of Federal Claims. Ms. Keahey joins the Court following 24 years at the United States Tax Court. She began her service at the Tax Court as a law clerk, first to Special Trial Judge Francis J. Cantrel, then to Judge Perry Shields. Her next thirteen years at the court were spent working as staff attorney in the Office of the Clerk of the Tax Court, where her primary responsibility was the management of the Tax Court’s general docket. In 2001, she was appointed the Tax Court’s first General Counsel. In that position, she served as the Chief Judge’s chief advisor on legal issues arising from the operations of the Tax Court, as liaison to Congressional committees – including the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, the Senate Finance Committee, and the House Ways and Means Committee – as legal advisor to the Tax Court’s Legislation Committee, Rules Committee, and ad hoc task forces, and as manager of the Tax Court’s career legal staff. Ms. Keahey also served as Acting Deputy Clerk of the Tax Court in 2005.
Ms. Keahey received her Bachelor of Science degree with highest distinction from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, her Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University School of Law (New Orleans), and her Masters of Laws in Taxation from Temple University School of Law. She is a native of Lafayette, Louisiana and is married to Thomas M. Keahey, M.D.
Ms. Keahey looks forward to meeting and working with members of the USCFC Bar Association.
Ms. Keahey succeeds to the position of Clerk of Court following the service of John S. Buckley as Acting Clerk of Court from December 24, 2007 to October 11, 2009, who rejoins the chambers of Judge Edward J. Damich as a career law clerk.
The Fall 2009 Newsletter is now available - click here to view.
The Takings Brown Bag that was scheduled for October 21, 2009 has been postponed until December. The Law and Education Committee would like to include developments in Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida -- currently to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on December 2, 2009 -- in its discussion. Details regarding the date, location and time for this Brown Bag will follow later, so please check back.
If you have been putting off joining the CFC Bar Association, now is the time to act.
Join the Court of Federal Claims Bar Association anytime between now and the end of the year and receive full membership for the remainder of 2009 and all of 2010 for one membership fee.
Click on "Membership" for information on the benefits of membership and how to join today.
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims Bar Association proudly announces the creation of its Law Student Writing Competition. The Court of Federal Claims Bar Association (CFCBA) is a voluntary bar association made up of nationwide members who practice law in the areas that lie within the specialized jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The goal of this competition is to encourage law student scholarship on current topics that lie within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
The United States Court of Federal Claims, which hears claims against the United States, has existed in its current and predecessor forms for more than 150 years. The current court was created pursuant to Article I of the United States Constitution in October 1982 by the Federal Courts Improvement Act. Its predecessor, the United States Claims Court, was created in 1855 when Congress established a court to hear private suits against the sovereign. The court is authorized to hear primarily money claims founded upon the Constitution, federal statutes, executive regulations, or contracts, express or implied-in-fact, with the United States.
The cases before the court are diverse. They include tax refund suits, government contracts, Fifth Amendment takings - which raise environmental and natural resource issues, civilian and military pay, intellectual property, Indian tribe, and Vaccine Injury Compensation matters.
Entries to the contest may discuss any topic that lies within the procedure, substance, or scope of the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Eligibility: Any law student in good standing currently enrolled at an ABA accredited law school may enter the competition. Students are permitted and encouraged to use papers that they prepared for law school courses and seminars during the Spring and Fall 2009 school semesters as their entries.
Deadline: Entries must be received by Thursday, December 31, 2009.
Prize: One cash prize of One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1,500) will be awarded to the entry deemed by the judges to be the best, and a second cash prize of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) to the entry deemed to be the second best. The winners will receive significant favorable publicity to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the members of the Court of Federal Claims Bar Association. It is anticipated that the winning entries will be published on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims website and the website of the CFCBA. The winners will be announced as soon as they are determined, but no later than March 1, 2010. The winners will also be recognized at the annual Law Day Celebration hosted by the Court of Federal Claims in May.
The July/August 2009 edition of Inside 717 is now available to bar association members for viewing.
On Thursday, March 12, 2009, President Obama designated the Honorable Emily C. Hewitt as the new Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, succeeding Judge Edward J. Damich. The Court of Federal Claims Bar Association extends heartfelt congratulations to Chief Judge Hewitt on her new duties and commends Judge Damich for his dedicated service to the Court and memorable term as Chief Judge. Judge Hewitt is the Court's fifth Chief Judge and the first woman to serve in that capacity. To view Judge Hewitt's biography,click here.
Membership dues are paid on a calendar year basis. Click here to renew your dues.
The much anticipated Fifth Edition of the Deskbook for Practitioners is now available!
Current paid members of the bar association may receive a complimentary copy by sending an email request with their current contact information to sandy@cfcbar.org. Please note that bar association membership is not the same as admission to the Bar of the Court; you must belong to the bar association and have paid your annual dues. If you are unsure of your membership status or have any other questions, please contact Sandy LoJacono at 202-220-8638.
Non-members of the bar association may purchase 1-9 copies for $25.00 each; 10-49 copies for $20.00 each; and 50 or more copies for $15.00 each by (i) sending a check with mailing instructions to P.O. Box 7614, Ben Franklin Station, Washington, DC 20044; or (ii) calling 202-220-8638 to pay by credit card.
Please see the following memoranda from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts regarding on-line access to court transcripts through the Court's ECF system.
Guidance for implementation to make transcripts available via CM/ECF
Guidance for court reports and transcribers on availability of transcripts in CM/ECF