Tamara McNulty

Tamara McNulty is a Partner in our Litigation Practice focusing on construction law and government contracts. Ms. McNulty has practiced law in both Am Law 100 firms and as senior in-house counsel.  Her practice is international in scope, providing legal services both in the United States and to companies working around the world. 

Ms. McNulty is a highly experienced litigator who has tried numerous cases in both state and federal courts.  She advises clients on construction claims for contract extras, delay damages, impact damages, assessment of liquidated damages and substantive law surrounding these issues and tries cases on these issues.  She asserts claims to various boards of contract appeals as well as the Court of Federal Claims, and she asserts and defends bid protests at both the state and federal levels.  Ms. McNulty works with her clients from the onset of projects to avoid potential claims and disputes down the line.  She also regularly assists clients in drafting and negotiating complex contracts for major infrastructure, energy, water, environmental and threat reduction projects around the world.  Additionally, Ms. McNulty 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. 

Ms. McNulty was the former Division Senior Counsel for Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp. (the Federal Corporation of Black & Veatch) reporting directly to the President of BVSPC and served on the BVSPC Executive Leadership team and the BVSPC Board of Directors.  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, Ms. McNulty has managed multi-million-dollar litigation, including managing outside counsel, litigation budgets, plans and discovery.  She 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 recommended resolution strategies for these matters.  Ms. McNulty 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.

Representative Experience

• Representing a Native American contractor in a claim against its defaulted subcontractor’s surety for costs to correct and complete the subcontractor’s work on multiple federal projects.

• Drafting various form contracts for use on federal projects, including, but not limited to, a design-build subcontract between contractor and designer, IDIQ contracts between contractor and its subcontractor on a construction project, and a design-build subcontract between the contractor and its constructor.

• Providing training to multiple Native American businesses on issues related to construction, such as contract terms, change orders, and issues specifically related to Federal construction projects.

• Drafting proposed change orders on various projects to be submitted to the Federal Government by several different Native American businesses.

• Advising a Native American contractor on issues related to Joint Ventures and its impact on small/disadvantaged/native business set-asides.

• Advising a Native American contractor on a Request for Equitable Adjustment to the Department of State for a project in Juba, South Sudan which was impacted by the country’s shut-down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Represented an Alaska Native contractor in responding to a non-party witness subpoena in a trade secrets litigation.

• Assisted an Alaska Native contractor in drafting multiple requests for equitable adjustment on contracts with the Department of the Navy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the United States Air Force.

• Led the team that successfully defended and won on summary judgment a $266 million dollar qui tam action alleging false claims under and implied false certification theory. The case was then upheld on appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.  

• Advised on legal issues and negotiated multimillion-dollar contracts and subcontracts for U.S. Government projects ranging from USAID infrastructure and energy projects in Afghanistan and the West Bank, biological and nuclear threat reduction programs for DTRA in multiple international locations, environmental remediation projects for EPA, as well as various architecture and engineering projects for the Corps of Engineers and the Department of Defense. Advised on legal issues relating to contracts with MCC, World Bank and EBRD for contracts in multiple international locations. 
• Chief legal advisor to the Ethics and Compliance Committee of the federal services corporation of one of the largest architecture, engineering and construction companies in the world. In that role she led and coordinated all ethics investigations, supervised determinations of the committee, made appropriate disclosures to the Federal government, when necessary. She was responsible to ensure that the ethics and compliance training met Federally-mandated standards and was appropriately implemented. She provided training to all employees of the corporation on various ethics and compliance issues.  

• Responsible for crafting a first of its kind subcontract with the Afghan Public Protection Force for security services upon the ruling by the Government of Afghanistan that private security companies would no longer be allowed to operate on U.S. Government projects in Afghanistan. This included resolving issues related to choice of law, default, insurance, and mandatory FAR flow down issues when contracting with a parastatal entity. 
• Represented an energy savings performance contractor in the legal management of a more than $95 million U.S. Navy project in Yokosuka, Japan, handling the drafting and negotiation of changes and REAs.  
• Represented an owner of a multimillion-dollar, multi-prime construction project in Prince George's County, Md., initially drafting the contract. She later assisted in the default termination of a contractor and the re-letting of that contractor's work. She successfully defended the client against the claims of contractors and in asserting the affirmative claims of the owner in court, in mediation and arbitration.  
• Represented the owner of a multimillion-dollar construction project of a senior living facility in Montgomery County, Md., drafting and negotiating the contract, assisting with insurance claims under the builder's risk policy and delaying issues with the construction manager.  
• Represented an MBE subcontractor on its wrongful termination claims against the general contractor and payment bond claims against its surety.  

•  Represented an energy-saving performance contractor in preparing and negotiating REA for owner caused delay damages at a federal nuclear facility in Texas.  
• Successfully defended, on behalf of a large staffing services client, a GAO bid protest by an unsuccessful bidder on a $22 million, multi-year services contract for the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC).  
• Successfully represented a contractor in defending a GAO protest by an unsuccessful bidder for a landscaping contract at Arlington Cemetery.  
• Successfully protested a GSA award of a janitorial services contract by arguing the source selection official failed to document the rationale for source selection consistent with the differential weighting of technical evaluation factors.  
• Successfully represented an international building systems manufacturer and contractor in its defense against the bid protest of the award of a multimillion-dollar energy savings performance contract in Massachusetts.  

• Represented a major surety company defending against claims of $1.7 million in completion costs by a Fortune 500 energy savings performance prime contractor on a federal project that defaulted its mechanical subcontractor, resulting in an arbitrator's determination that default was wrongful and the prime contractor had violated the covenant of good faith and fair dealing against both the subcontractor and surety. The arbitrator awarded 93 percent of the requested costs and attorney fees -- in excess of $1.2 million -- to the surety and subcontractor.  
• Represented a contractor and its surety in the resolution of numerous payment and performance disputes arising out of seven construction projects and resolved more than 20 separate matters, resulting in a net savings to both clients of millions of dollars.  
• Acted as counsel for a prime contractor on the Kennedy Center Site work renovation and led in authoring the prime contractor's Request for Equitable Adjustment in the range of $10 million, resulting in a favorable settlement.  
• Served as counsel for a first-tier subcontractor on the Kennedy Center Opera House renovation and led in authoring the subcontractor's REA, resulting in the successful settlement of a claim after mediation.  
• Served as counsel for a major Canadian surety sued by an owner for more than $1 million related to a defaulted curtain wall contractor, resulting in a dismissal and summary judgment of all claims against the surety.  

• Served as counsel in a jury trial against a developer charged with racial discrimination, resulting in the jury returning a verdict for the developer in less than half an hour that was later upheld on subsequent appeals.   
• Served as counsel for a surety in the defense and resolution of numerous payment and performance disputes arising out of a construction project at the University of Virginia, resolving several disputes by negotiated settlement and resolving one claim via settlement after trial of the matter.  
• Successfully represented a surety and its principal/contractor in asserting the no-damage-for-delay clause of its principal and defending the victories in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  
• Successfully argued a creditor's motion for summary judgment in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, resulting in a $6.7 million non-dischargeable judgment against the debtor.