Seamus Curley

Seamus Curley negotiates, litigates and counsels clients on federal, state and local government contract matters as well as on commercial disputes.

Government & Commercial Litigation

Seamus has litigated in state and federal courts, including multiple pro hac vice admissions, and before administrative forums, including the US Court of Federal Claims (COFC), the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), the US Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) and the US Small Business Administration Office of Hearings and Appeals (SBA OHA) on bid protests, size protests/appeals, and Contract Disputes Act (CDA) claims. Seamus also handles commercial litigation matters, including contract disputes such as business-to-business disputes on commercial tenancies.

Selected recent experience includes:

• Recovering more than $800,000 on a Request for Equitable Adjustment (REA) and related negotiations in 2020 arising out of a holdover on two U.S. General Services Administration (“GSA”) companion leases in Washington D.C., which includes Government payment of holdover rent, increased construction costs caused by the holdover, real estate tax reimbursements, and REA preparation costs.   
• Obtaining summary judgment in 2020 from the CBCA on an unlawful setoff against rental income due to the landlord for space in Arlington, Virginia taken by the GSA without issuing a Contracting Officer’s Final Decision.
• Bringing suit and, in 2020, resolving a commercial landlord’s claim against a retail tenant that abandoned space in Washington DC, which included payment to the landlord.
• Successfully defending a GAO bid protest in 2020 for a 15-year lease and the build out of office space for the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Marine Facilities program in Florida under a GSA lease.
• Causing dismissal of a GAO bid protest in 2020 brought by a disappointed bidder challenging the contract award  by the Bonneville Power Administration establishing a strategic alliance with a single qualified facilities management firm.
• Securing corrective action on a GAO bid protest in 2019 challenging the U.S. Air Force’s exclusion of a contractor from the competitive range on a solicitation for design and construction work in Europe, which ultimately led to a contract award.
• Successfully defending on behalf of the incumbent landlord a COFC pre-award bid protest in 2018 brought by an offeror under a GSA Request for Lease Proposals (“RLP”) for the Drug Enforcement Agency (“DEA”) headquarters in Northern Virginia challenging the RLP’s parking requirements as well as GSA’s exclusion of electrical costs from the evaluation, incorporation of a conditional cash concession into the price evaluation, communications with the incumbent after its selection for award, and refusal to allow the protester to revise its proposal.  The successful defense cleared the way for finalization and execution of the follow-on lease.  
• Prevailing on a GAO bid protest in 2017 alleging a flawed technical evaluation by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) on a multibillion-dollar student loan debt collection contract competition, which resulted in a re-opened competition and an award of attorneys’ fees.
• Favorably resolving litigation in 2017 filed against the GSA in a U.S. District Court to prevent the public release of proprietary contractor information relating to an incumbent contract under that contract’s data rights clause while the follow-on contract competition was still pending.
• Between 2015-2018, assisting contractors recover more than $20 million cumulatively from public entities, including federal civilian and defense agencies, on Requests for Equitable Adjustments (REAs) and disputed change orders arising out of constructive changes, project delays, including design and construction delays, and differing site conditions.

Counseling

Seamus counsels on unique contract terms and conditions, including domestic preference/country-of-origin restrictions (e.g., Buy American Act (BAA) and Trade Agreements Act (TAA)), procurement fraud and business ethics/compliance programs, and due diligence for mergers and acquisitions involving government contractors. Seamus also negotiates and drafts subcontracts and teaming agreements, and he represents contractors responding to audits or conducting internal investigations.

Government Real Estate

Seamus is a member of Stroock’s Government Real Estate (GRE) team and has significant experience at the intersection of real property and government procurement law. He and the GRE team represent commercial landlords, equity funds and real estate investment trusts, lenders, developers, property managers, and trade contractors working under public contracts with a real estate nexus, including leases of privately-owned real property to federal agency tenants. This includes pre-award and post-award counseling as well as dispute resolution during both phases.

Other Experience

Seamus’s pro bono service has included successfully obtaining a T visa for a human trafficking victim from Thailand, who had been lured to the U.S. to work on a tobacco farm under deplorable conditions, so that he and his family could remain in the country legally. Seamus also has successfully handled social security disability claims and taken on commercial contract disputes on a pro bono basis.

Seamus has published and presented on government procurement issues to sophisticated professionals, and he has taught and lectured business and law graduate students aspiring to enter into or advance in the field, including as a former adjunct professor at The Catholic University of America: Metropolitan School of Professional Studies and as a guest lecturer at George Washington University, Georgetown University Law Center, and The University of Illinois College of Law.

Prior to joining Stroock, Seamus was a partner at an international law firm and a member of its government contracts practice in Washington, D.C. Before that, he was in private practice in New Jersey, with a focus on commercial and real property-related litigation and municipal law. He also served as a judicial law clerk in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Monmouth Vicinage, Criminal Division.

• Government Affairs
• Government Contracts
• Litigation
• National Security / CFIUS / Compliance
• Real Estate Litigation

• Law 360, Rising Star
• Super Lawyers, Rising Star

• Member, Public Contract Law Section, American Bar Association
  • Vice-Chair, Commercial Products and Services Committee

• Presenter, "Construction Issues in Federal Leasing," ABA Section of Public Contract Law Annual Meeting, New York, NY, August 11, 2017
• Presenter/Moderator, “Comparative Bid Challenges: Canada, Poland, and the United States,” ABA Section of International Law, Washington, DC, April 28, 2017
• Presenter, “Government Contracts 101: An Overview of U.S. Government Contracts for Non-Government Contracts Attorneys,” Federal Bar Association and MyLawCLE, Webinar, March 2, 2017
• Presenter, “Buy American & Trade Agreements . . . The Rules, Practical Applications, Case Examples & Compliance Strategies,” Government Business Conference for Fortune 10 Multinational Conglomerate, Fort Myers, FL, April 27, 2016
• Panelist, “Innovating by Making the Right Moves When Protesting,” 2013 US General Services Administration & American Counsel for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) Acquisition Excellence Seminar, Washington, DC, March 21, 2013
• Co-Presenter, “Debriefings in Federal Procurement: Key Issues and Strategies,” L2 Federal Resources, LLC Webinar, Washington, DC January 31, 2013

District of Columbia; New York; New Jersey

U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey

U.S. Court of Federal Claims

U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit

LL.M., with highest honors, The George Washington University Law School, 2008; Government Procurement

J.D., Seton Hall University School of Law, 2003

B.S., Boston University, 2000

• Co-author, “New Foreign Ownership Disclosure Requirements may go Beyond CFIUS if you Have a High-Security Federal Lease,” Stroock Client Alert, December 10, 2020
• Co-author, "An Old Law for the New War: Defense Production Act Not Just for Government Contractors," Stroock Special Bulletin, April 2, 2020