Miller & Chevalier Adds Government Contracts Lawyer
Miller & Chevalier Chartered announced that government contracts attorney Alejandro “Alex” Sarria joined the firm as a member in the Government Contracts Counseling and Litigation Practice.
Sarria joined the firm from Covington & Burling LLP and previously spent seven years at multinational law firm McKenna, Long & Aldridge LLP (now part of Dentons).
In a release, the firm said Sarria represents contractors in complex contract disputes with federal and state governments and in mass tort lawsuits arising out of military operations, national security programs, and environmental remediation projects. In his counseling practice, he advises clients on an array of federal procurement issues, including matters involving cost allowability, cost or pricing data requirements, battlefield contracting, subcontract pricing and flowdowns, commercial item contracting, the General Services Administration Schedules program, organizational conflicts of interest, cybersecurity laws and regulations, and business ethics and code of conduct requirements.
One of Sarria’s cases, Secretary of the Army v. Kellogg Brown & Root Services (KBR), was a multi-year collaboration with Miller & Chevalier Government Contracts Practice member Jason Workmaster that resulted in a groundbreaking July 2019 decision. In that case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit put an end to the long-running contract dispute regarding the use of private security contractors by the U.S. Army’s principal logistical support contractor, KBR, and its subcontractors during the height of the Iraq War. In doing so, the Federal Circuit affirmed a 2017 decision finding that KBR was entitled to reimbursement of $44 million, plus interest, in costs the government had initially paid but later recouped under a cost-reimbursement contract. The decision resolved (in KBR’s favor) important questions regarding jurisdiction over affirmative defenses and contractors’ entitlement to interest, which promise to have a long-lasting positive impact for contractors engaged in contract disputes with the federal government.
Sarria serves as a vice chair of both the ABA Section of Public Contract Law, Contract Claims and Disputes Resolution Committee, and the Battlespace and Contingency Procurements Committee. He is a member of the National Defense Industrial Association, Procurement Division & Legal Committee, the Hispanic National Bar Association, and the Cuban American Bar Association.
Sarria earned his J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, where he was the Senior Articles Editor for The Public Contract Law Journal, and his B.S. in Journalism, with high honors, from the University of Florida.
