HOWARD STANISLAWSKI focuses his practice on government contracts and grants, with a major emphasis on aerospace and defense matters, and on export controls. He has worked with many domestic and international clients in both counseling and litigation and has represented clients with the United States Department of Defense, Department of State, Department of Commerce, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Environmental Protection Agency, United States Agency for International Development, Department of Justice, Department of Transportation and Department of Health and Human Services. Howard has represented clients in litigation at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, United States Court of Federal Claims, United States District Courts and state courts in a variety of states, Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, General Services Board of Contract Appeals, and Government Accountability Office. From 2005 through 2014, Howard served on the NASA Advisory Council and the NAC’s Finance, Accounting, and Budget Committee.
Howard has significant experience in all areas of federal government contracts law involving the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), the DOD Supplement to the FAR (DFARS), other agency FAR Supplements, federal agency grants, including grants from the Department of Defense and Department of Energy as well as working with US export control statutes and regulations, with a particular focus on the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Howard has worked extensively with pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, and has regularly focused on the General Services Administration (GSA) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts. He has also worked with pharmaceutical manufacturers in connection with the VA Master Agreement, Medicare and Medicaid qualification, and other aspects of federal government contracting, including master agreements and blanket purchase agreements. Howard works closely with Sidley’s Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy and Healthcare practices.
Howard also works regularly with Sidley’s Mergers and Acquisition lawyers on due diligence relating to Government contracts in both acquisitions and divestitures, and also advises clients on Exon-Florio (CFIUS) matters, security clearance matters involving the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), and mitigation of Foreign Ownership, Control, and Influence (FOCI). He also advises clients on a wide array of protectionist statutory and regulatory requirements, including the Buy American Act, Trade Agreements Act, the Buy America provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and U.S. Government sanctions of various kinds. Howard has particular experience in the area of American anti-boycott provisions and their enforcement by the Department of Commerce, and, since the mid-1970’s, Howard has followed closely the development and implementation of anti-boycott provisions in American law. Howard’s doctoral dissertation focused on anti-boycott statutes, regulations and policies implemented in the United States, United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Canada.
Howard has been at the forefront of Sidley’s focus on Government contract cost accounting issues, including matters involving interpretation and implementation of the FAR’s Cost Principles and the Cost Accounting Standards. He has experience in the highly complex area of accounting for pension costs in Government contracts, and has been involved in counseling clients and litigating disputes involving interpretations of the Cost Principles, including those relating to depreciation and asset step-up resulting from business combinations. He has worked closely with clients in the development of complex claims relating to federal Government contracts and successfully negotiated settlements relating to such claims, and, in the absence of such settlements, successfully litigated such claims.
Howard regularly advises clients on their responses to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) issued by the federal government. Howard has worked closely with clients in their development and implementation of cost accounting systems and in their negotiation of contracts with the federal government. He has also conducted internal investigations and has represented clients in their responses to investigations conducted by the Department of Justice, Inspectors General of various agencies, and investigative bodies of the Department of Defense and other federal agencies. He regularly advises clients on multiple aspects of U.S. Government contracts that are performed abroad, and he advises foreign clients on many aspects of their performance of contracts for the U.S. Government, both abroad and in the United States.
Prior to his work as a lawyer, Howard was a professor of Political Science at Wellesley College, Brandeis University and Boston College.