Tamara McNulty is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Lewis Brisbois and is a member of the Government Contracts, Construction, Complex Business & Commercial Litigation, and Administrative Law & Regulatory Practices with a focus on construction law and government contracts law. She has practiced law in both Am Law 100 firms and as senior in-house counsel. Her practice is both national and international, providing legal services both in the United States and to companies working around the world.
Tamara was the Division Senior Counsel for Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp. (the Federal Contracts Corporation of Black & Veatch) reporting directly to the President of BVSPC. In that role she served on the BVSPC Executive Leadership team and the BVSPC Board of Directors. She has demonstrated the ability to work on multiple projects, to meet established deadlines, to be creative and solutions focused, and to take a strategic view. Sha has also served as the General Counsel (acting) to an expert electrical design-build and systems integration firm. In her in-house roles, she was involved in all aspects of the corporation’s legal matters, including ethics and compliance, HR, business transactions, managing procurement and managing outside counsel and litigation budgets.
Through her work as both a private firm lawyer and senior in-house counsel to the Federal division of a multi-billion-dollar global architecture, engineering and construction company, she has extensive knowledge of and experience with complex international legal and compliance issues, as well as the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), the False Claims Act (FCA), the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Anti-Kickback Act, the Buy American Act, the Miller Act, the Prompt Payment Act, OSHA, and the Truth In Negotiations Act (TINA).
She regularly counsels federal contractors on investigations, business ethics, conduct codes and compliance, OFAC compliance issues, DCAA/DCMA audits and investigations, cost allowability and the Cost Accounting Standards, as well as labor and employment issues such as the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act (SCA).
She is experienced in subcontracting plans, best value procurement strategy, and debriefings. She has extensive experience managing and assisting in the administration of a variety of contracts to include Firm-Fixed Price (FFP), Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee (CPFF), Cost-Plus-Award-Fee (CPAF), Time-and- Materials (T&M), Indefinite Delivery - Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), and negotiating Non-Disclosure Agreements and Teaming Agreements. Additionally, Tamara has extensive knowledge of green building and is a LEED Accredited Professional.
As the lead division counsel for BVSPC, she was involved in all aspects of BVSPC’s legal matters, including investigations, ethics and compliance, human resources and business transactions. As in-house counsel, she has managed multi-million-dollar litigation, including managing outside counsel, litigation budgets, plans and discovery. Tamara has investigated and provided legal analysis and advised on ethics and compliance investigations, CDA claims, bid protests, requests for equitable adjustments and design errors and omissions claims and recommend resolution strategies for these matters. She has also trained business unit operating staff on contract interpretation, government contract law issues, contract management processes and ethics and compliance matters, in both the classroom setting, in one-on-one mentoring, and during working sessions.
Tamara is an experienced trial attorney, and she has taught advanced trial skills for NITA. She has tried numerous cases in both state and federal courts, has asserted claims to various boards of contract appeals as well as the Court of Federal Claims, and has asserted and defended bid protests at both the state and federal levels.
Tamara advises clients on construction claims for contract extras, delay damages, impact damages, assessment of liquidated damages and substantive law surrounding these issues and has tried cases on all regarding these issues. She has also written two books on construction law and numerous articles and book chapters on topics of government contracts law, construction law, and surety law.
Tamara is accustomed to working with her clients from the onset of projects to avoid potential claims and disputes. She regularly assists clients in drafting and negotiating complex contracts for major infrastructure, energy, water, environmental and threat reduction projects around the world. Additionally, Tamara is experienced in mediations, arbitrations and other forms of alternative dispute resolution and was formerly an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association’s Construction Law panel.