The veteran Wall Street law firms Davis Polk & Wardwell and Sullivan & Cromwell have signed contracts worth $650,000 each to provide legal advisory services to the U.S. Treasury Department as it sorts out relief to air carriers amid the coronavirus pandemic, joining Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as a federal contractor in the virus era.

U.S. Treasury officials said last month that they were working with Cleary Gottlieb on financial matters involving air carriers. Cleary's contract, also valued at $650,000, mirrored those signed on May 1 by Davis Polk and Sullivan & Cromwell lawyers. The contracts run for six weeks.

The Davis Polk team includes New York partners Randall Guynn, John Banes and Jim Florack, according to the contract. Guynn leads Davis Polk's financial institutions group, and Florack is the co-head of the global finance group. Davis Polk's contract says the firm will provide legal services.

Sullivan & Cromwell's contract identified the lead partners as Sergio Galvis, Inosi Nyatta and Benjamin Weiner. Galvis is a member of the firm's management committee and oversees recruitment. Nyatta jointly leads the firm's global project development and finance practice. The contract requires the firm to provide "legal advisory services for loan and financial assistance agreements under the CARES Act."

The Davis Polk and Sullivan & Cromwell lawyers were not immediately reached for comment.

Both contracts said the firms "may be tasked with providing expert advice and guidance with respect to loans, equity investments, and other direct or indirect investments; developing legal documentation with respect to loans, equity investments, and other direct or indirect investments; negotiating relevant transactions; and performing related legal services within the general contract scope."

Davis Polk's contract came with a supplement that confronted issues involving conflicts of interest—any situation where the firm might continue to represent, or pick up a new client, with interests adverse to the U.S. Treasury Department. The supplement served to waive any objection by the federal government to Davis Polk representing a corporation or other client against the Treasury Department.

"The contractor also represents and in the future will represent a large number of other clients in a wide variety of legal matters. Some such clients may have interests that are contrary to the client's interests," the supplement said. "It is possible that, during the time the contractor is working for the client, an existing or future client may seek to engage the contractor in connection with an actual or potential transaction or pending or potential litigation or other dispute resolution proceeding in which such client's interests are or potentially may become adverse to the client's interests."

The U.S. Treasury, per the terms of the contract, "consents to, and waives any objection with respect to, such adverse representations." Treasury is not allowed to argue that Davis Polk should be disqualified from representing such a client whose interests are not aligned with the U.S. government's interests.