Jerry Howe, Leidos executive vice president and company's general counsel.

Leidos' legal department, led by general counsel Jerry Howe, handled many legal challenges over the past year, including defending the company's contract wins against bid protests filed by competitors at the U.S. General Accountability Office. The company defended a bid protest of its major contract win with NASA's end-user services and technology program, under which the company provides and manages IT services that support NASA's scientific and research efforts. The value of this deal comprises "more than $2.9 billion over a 10-year period of performance," the company said. The company also defended a second big contract win with the Air Force Air Combat Command. That project supports the warfighter's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission through intelligence gathering. According to the company, that deal has a total ceiling value of approximately $900 million. Lisa Helem caught up with Howe for a Q&A.

In Leidos' defense of the two major bid protests from this year over the NASA and Air Force contracts, were there particular strategies that led to success? These were both "kitchen sink" protests with many distinct grounds for protest. Our strategy was to remain steadfast, marshal the facts, and defeat the protesters' arguments one by one. More than anything, we remained legally aligned with our government customers as they fought off the protests.

Over the past year, what percentage of the legal department's work was focused on defending bid protests and litigation? Ten of our lawyers work primarily in one of our four business groups. It's these lawyers that typically handle bid protests, working with outside counsel. On other litigation matters, our group attorneys often partner with attorneys who specialize in specific substantive areas, such as employment law or IP law.

How many of Leidos' lawyers work on litigation? And how many of those matters are led by in-house vs. by outside counsel? Just over half of our lawyers work on litigation. We work with outside counsel on most litigation matters, but it is typically in a "co-counsel" capacity where in-house and outside attorneys seamlessly work hand in hand to ensure matters are handled as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Among the litigation challenges over the past year, Leidos scored a victory from the Greek Supreme Court over the enforcement of a July 2013 international arbitration award that directed Greece to pay Leidos more than $50 million in a contract dispute. That dispute dated all the way back to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Describe the company's strategy in that litigation and why it was successful.

To defend the arbitration award in the Greek courts, we designed and executed a multijurisdiction strategy, including obtaining and enforcing a May 2018 judgment entered by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. We identified assets, conducted discovery and pressed for payment, not only in the U.S., but also in the U.K. and several European venues. That led to the Greek government ending its efforts to contest the award and finally agreeing to pay Leidos the award plus interest in September of this year.

Company: Leidos

General Counsel: Jerry Howe

Headquarters: Reston, VA

Number of Attorneys in the Washington, D.C., Area: 24

Number of Attorneys in the U.S.: 25

Number of Attorneys Worldwide (Including D.C. Area): 27

Excerpt from the company's submission: "The Leidos legal department's functions and responsibilities cover legal and contractual support for the full spectrum of the company's business operations and encompass a wide variety of issues relating to the global activities of the company's 33,000 employees. The legal department has had an exceptional year handling numerous legal challenges and helping to advance Leidos as one of the world's leading federal government contractors."