Dean M. Dilley, former chairman of Patton Boggs LLP’s business law practice group, assists clients on matters involving international transactions, government contracts, and litigation. He advises foreign companies and sovereign governments with interests in the United States, as well as U.S. companies with interests abroad. He also represents U.S. and foreign companies in connection with contracts awarded by the U.S. and other governments. He has represented several foreign governments in connection with international commercial transactions, international arbitration and litigation, military procurement matters, and defense cooperation agreements with the United States. In addition to the representation of foreign governments, Mr. Dilley maintains an active government contracts practice, and he represents clients involved in procurement by most federal agencies. He has been extensively involved in the preparation, negotiation, and litigation of contract claims; government contract cost accounting and allowability issues; subcontract transactions; mergers and acquisitions involving government contractors; privatization of government enterprises; the transfer of rights in data and computer software; foreign military sales transactions and related disputes between contractors and foreign sovereigns; and export licensing for armaments, spacecraft, and related intellectual property. Before joining Patton Boggs, Mr. Dilley was an attorney with the general counsel of the Air Force in the Pentagon, where he provided legal counsel in connection with a wide variety of government contract matters, procurement policy, and congressional liaison. He regularly provided legal counsel to procurement officials concerning pre-award contract planning and source selection procedures; protests and other contract award challenges; post-award contract administration issues; cost accounting and audit matters; application of procurement-specific statutes and regulations; specialized problems arising from procurement of major weapons systems; and international transactions related to foreign military sales and the placement of U.S. military facilities or equipment outside of the United States. He also served as counsel to the Air Force Debarment and Suspension Review Board, and counsel to the Extraordinary Contractual Relief Board.
Joseph J. Dyer is a partner with Seyfarth Shaw LLP. He has practiced primarily in the areas of government contracts and international, commercial, and business transactions since 1989. He regularly counsels companies in the broad range of issues involved in contracting with the federal and foreign governments, and commercial business transactions and export controls. He also has significant litigation experience, having litigated and arbitrated matters before federal and state courts, the Boards of Contract Appeals, and other administrative tribunals and agencies. Prior to joining Seyfarth Shaw, Mr. Dyer held a variety of legal and managerial positions with a major defense company. He also, while practicing with Seyfarth, served as acting general counsel for several divisions of another major defense contractor. He also worked as a staff attorney for the Maryland Public Service Commission immediately after graduating from law school. Mr. Dyer is a frequent lecturer and author, having written or co-written more than thirty articles addressing legal aspects of government, commercial, and international contracting. He was one of fifteen recipients nationwide of the 2001 Burton Award for Legal Achievement, and he is a National Contract Management Association fellow. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Maryland State Bar Association. He earned his B.A. in economics from the University of Maryland and his J.D., with honors, from the University of Maryland School of Law, in addition to graduate legal studies at the National Law Center of George Washington University.
M. Christie Helmer is a partner with Miller Nash LLP. She maintains both a litigation and a business practice. She started practicing in the admiralty area, litigating charter party, collision, cargo damacie, marine financing, and longshoremen’s personal injury cases. Much of that work involved international issues. During the late 1980s, she represented the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, closing down insolvent savings and loan associations and bringing civil actions against their officers, directors, borrowers, and insurers. Litigating partnership dissolutions, real estate transactions gone awry, fraud claims, and a variety of business disputes followed, as did an active practice assisting clients to mitigate risk by understanding and clearly drafting their contracts in the first place. When Oregon’s global business reach expanded significantly in the 1990s, Ms. Helmer moved to New York for ten months to obtain her L.L.M. in international law from Columbia University, while maintaining a reduced practice and serving, through Miller Nash, as in-house counsel to a Daimler-Benz international financing subsidiary located in the New York metropolitan area. In addition to an active transnational and domestic litigation practice, she currently serves a number of multinational and smaller businesses and nonprofits with their international needs. Ms. Helmer is a regular speaker and author on her areas of expertise. She has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for more than ten years. She is also designated a “Super Lawyer” in the area of business litigation by Oregon Super Lawyers magazine, and she was selected as Lewis & Clark Law School’s “Distinguished Graduate” for 2008. She received her bachelor’s degree in English, magna cum laude, from Washington State University. She received her law degree, cum laude, from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College.
Richard J. Vacura is a partner with Morrison & Foerster LLP’s Northern Virginia office, where he heads the government contracts group. His government contracts practice is focused on information technology matters, including counseling, litigation, and claims development for international and domestic companies. His counseling experience includes due diligence reviews for domestic and foreign acquisitions, novation and assignment issues, drafting and negotiating teaming and joint venture agreements, technical data and non-disclosure agreements, export control, international anti-corruption, national security, and standard domestic and international solicitations and contract/subcontract terms and conditions. Mr. Vacura has been named a “Leading Lawyer in Government Contracts” in the Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers directory. He also was named a “Top Government Contracts Lawyer” in 2006 by the Washington Business Journal. Mr. Vacura has lectured and conducted seminars on a variety of federal procurement topics for clients and other organizations. He is an active member of the American Bar Association. He also served on the board of governors for the Boards of Contract Appeals Bar Association. He is admitted to the bars of Minnesota, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Court of Federal Claims, and the District Court for the District of Columbia. He received his J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law in 1983 and his L.L.M. in government procurement law from the George Washington University Law School in 1991. He graduated from the University of Texas with honors in 1974 with a B.A. in political science and psychology. Aki Bayz is of counsel in the corporate and project finance groups in the Washington, D.C., office of Morrison & Foerster LLP. His practice encompasses a broad range of transactional matters, including international and domestic project and commercial finance, acquisitions, joint ventures, and private equity financing. He advises clients in diverse industries and multifaceted transactions around the world with respect to the preparation, structuring, and negotiation of commercial transactions. He represents start-up and other private companies in obtaining equity financing, and he provides general corporate representation. He also advises clients on export licensing requirements and compliance matters for items within the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Export Administration, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the Office of Defense Trade Controls. He has particular expertise in assisting companies to obtain export classification, approvals, and licenses for a broad range of items, including technology and software related to encryption, telecommunications, and semiconductors. Mr. Bayz serves, pro bono, as legal adviser to the Hellenic American National Council and the National Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce. He received his B.S. from Georgetown University and his M.S. from the London School of Economics, where he was editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Studies. He received his J.D., cum laude, from the American University at Washington College of Law.
