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Townsend Bourne

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Townsend Bourne is a partner in the Governmental Practice in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. She also is Leader of the firm’s Government Business Group.

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The inexorable expansion of the False Claims Act (“FCA”) to cover virtually all types of cybersecurity breaches and violations – to include allegedly poor practices and failure to fully adhere to security controls – continues. At one time, an organization might have thought that it was unlikely to face a potential FCA investigation and litigation relating to its cybersecurity practices. That day is long past. Two recent FCA settlements illustrate the expansion: one is the first cybersecurity FCA settlement relating to healthcare Quality System Regulations (“QSR”) and the other involves the first settlement with a defense contractor that also pulls in its private equity owner.Continue Reading The Expanding Scope of FCA-Cybersecurity Liability

On March 18, 2020, the President issued an Executive Order on Prioritizing and Allocating Health and Medical Resources to Respond to the Spread of COVID-19 (the “EO”). The EO was issued pursuant to the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. §4501 et seq.) (“DPA”), which allows the President to invoke special Federal Contracting powers to address shortages in medical resources needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The EO specifically mentions personal protective equipment and ventilators as necessary to curb the spread of COVID-19, but also delegates authority to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) to identify additional necessary health and medical resources such as drugs, medical devices, health supplies, and health services and equipment.
Continue Reading Presidential Executive Order Calls on HHS to Issue Priority Contracts and Allocate Scarce Medical Resources