Alexander W. Major

Alex Major is an associate in the Government Contracts and Regulated Industries Practice Group in the firm's Washington, D.C. office.

Areas of Practice

Mr. Major focuses his practice on government contracts, administrative law and litigation, representing clients before government agencies, the Government Accountability Office, and the United States Court of Federal Claims.  Mr. Major also counsels clients with respect to a wide range of government contract issues, including bid protests, claim preparation, FAR Cost Principles and Cost Accounting Standards, contract compliance, and defective pricing and price reductions clause violations; as well as assisting in the conduct of internal investigations.

Currently, Mr. Major is a Major in the U.S. Air Force Reserves where he serves as a U.S. Air Force Academy Admissions Liaison Officer for the state of Maryland.

Education

• J.D., Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, 2005, cum laude, Member, Catholic University Law Review
• B.S., Montana State University, 1993

Clerkships

• Law Clerk to the Honorable Paul W. Grimm, Chief Magistrate Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
• Extern to the Honorable H. F. "Sparky" Gierke, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

Admissions

• Maryland
• Washington, D.C.
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
• U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
• U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

Successfully defended the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s award of a contract to Staples, Inc. and, in so doing, affirmed the Court of Federal Claims jurisdiction over FDIC bid protests.  Office Depot v. United States, 95 Fed. Cl. 517 (2010).

Counseled defense industry client on procurement agreement and negotiations with the Government of Israel.

Counseled defense industry clients on the proper application of Cost Accounting Standards 404, 418, and 419 in response to DCAA audit findings.

Coordinated systematic collections and responses to Government subpoenas on behalf of numerous clients.

As an experienced litigator, Mr. Major has significant experience in the areas of electronic discovery and pre-trial civil procedure having represented and counseled Fortune 500 companies and individuals in diverse state and federal civil and criminal proceedings:

• Created comprehensive ESI collection plan with relevance and privilege search terms in order to identify, collect, review and produce over nine terabytes of bi-lingual ESI documents in less than six weeks.
• Successful pursuit of Summary Judgment and $600,000 award for client after oral arguments
• Successfully negotiated the extrication of an accounting firm from a third-party subpoena and heated discovery dispute
• Specially selected to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland’s Criminal Justice Act Panel as court appointed counsel for indigent federal criminal defendants
• Assisted in discovery matters and attacks against Plaintiffs’ novel damages theories in complex civil litigation defending a Fortune 25 client against multi-state and multi-district class-action RICO and design-defect claims.
• Successfully represented a client in federal fraud litigation against Defendants running a sophisticated products diversion scam; resulted in a favorable settlement for the client and a pending federal criminal investigation.
• Counseled U.S. based client on the application of USA PATRIOT Act requirements in relationship to United Kingdom’s privacy law concerns.
• Counseled financial client on proper law enforcement and intelligence community reporting requirements under the USA PATRIOT Act

Prior to beginning his legal career, Mr. Major spent ten years as a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer in the areas of intelligence collection and intelligence analysis. Mr. Major has operational experience employing IMINT, SIGINT and MASINT systems in the CENTCOM and PACOM areas of responsibilities.  In his final position on active duty, Mr. Major served as an Intelligence Crisis Manager for the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (J2M), and provided the Chairman and senior DOD officials with daily briefings on South and Southeast Asia, including Afghanistan on the evening of 9/11.  Thereafter, Mr. Major was appointed as the mission spokesperson for the Defense Intelligence Agency and as the lead speech writer for the Agency's Director until leaving active duty in 2004.

A graduate of the National Security Agency’s Junior Officer Cryptologic Career Program ("JOCCP"), Mr. Major has been a part of, or interacted directly with, all national-level intelligence agencies as well as international intelligence liaisons on every continent.

Memberships

• American Bar Association
• Maryland State Bar Association
• Anne Arundel County Bar Association
• Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA)

Articles

• Hon Paul W. Grimm, Alexander Major & Michael Ziccardi, “Back to the Future: Loraine v. Markel American Insurance Co. and New Findings of the Admissibility of Electronically Stored Information” 42 Akron Law Review 357 (2009)
• Hon. Paul W. Grimm & Alexander Major, "Legal Standards Governing the Collection of Admissible Electronic Evidence in Criminal Cases in the United States: Balancing Privacy Interests with Law Enforcement Interests," 2 Sungkyunkwan University Journal Of Science And Technology Law 1, (2008)

Government Contracts Law Blog Articles

• "MAS March Madness: Increased Competition In Multiple Award Schedule Orders," April 18, 2011
• "A Brief Look At United Nations Procurement: Going International ... Sort Of," December 17, 2010
• "Redefining Cost Or Pricing Data," October 7, 2010
• "Can DoD Be "The Biggest Loser"? Gates Unveils DoD's New Fiscal Diet Plan," October 7, 2010
• "United States District Court For The Southern District Of Texas Deprives Battlefield Contractors Of The Protections Of The Defense Base Act," June 14, 2010

Speeches

• “E(asy)-Discovery: Practical Advice for Conducting Electronic Discovery,” Frederick County Maryland Bar Association, May 24, 2011