Jim Gallagher has been chosen as general counsel of Perspecta, a new IT provider services company that is forming through the merger of Vencore Holding Corp. and KeyPoint Government Solutions with DXC Technology's U.S. public sector business unit. The merger is expected to close next month.

Perspecta will deal solely with government clients, Gallagher said, and no commercial ones. He now is vice president and associate general counsel at DXC, where he leads the U.S. public sector business unit, overseeing federal contracts.

“It will be the first time I've been a general counsel, and I am very excited,” he told Corporate Counsel on Tuesday.

And for the first time, he said at Perspecta he will be overseeing not only government contracting but also company-wide litigation, securities, employment issues, and mergers and acquisitions.

The Perspecta legal department, Gallagher said, will consist of 65 to 70 people, mostly contract professionals, plus eight lawyers from DXC and Vencore. JoAnne Dukeshire, the vice president of contracts at Vencore, will take the same post at Perspecta, he said.

Perspecta will be based in northern Virginia, on the edge of Washington, D.C.

“Jim was an ideal candidate for the Perspecta general counsel position” because of his nearly 25 years of experience in the field, said William Deckelman, DXC's general counsel and Gallagher's boss. “He understands the intricacies of federal government contracting.”

Since joining DXC a year ago, Gallagher “has grown into a credible and capable leader in the company and the legal organization,” Deckelman said. DXC is one of the world's largest information technology service providers and a Fortune 200 company.

Perspecta will be a public company that uses the combined resources of the merged companies to offer “end-to-end IT services and mission solutions [to] government customers at the federal, state and local level,” according to a statement last month from Mike Lawrie, chairman and CEO of DXC as well as chairman of Perspecta.

Among other duties, Gallagher advises government groups on a wide range of legal tech matters, including contract and subcontract negotiations, contract and subcontract disputes, teaming agreements, bid protests, compliance, intellectual property and technical data rights.

Before joining DXC in April 2017, he served over 13 years at HP Enterprise Services as vice president and associate general counsel. He did similar work there, overseeing HP's federal legal and contracts group.

Previously he was a senior counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman for 10 years, working on all phases of government contracting, counseling and litigation.