Alan Dickson is a partner in Holland & Knight's Los Angeles office and a member of the firm's Government Contracts Practice Group. Mr. Dickson has counseled public and private sector clients for more than four decades on a wide range of government, commercial and construction contracting issues, and related litigation at the federal, state, and local levels.
Mr. Dickson represents clients in many industries, including software and computer products, heavy equipment manufacturing, strategic defense studies, engineering and environmental services, construction, aerospace, healthcare, and research and development.
Mr. Dickson's considerable experience includes matters involving prime and subcontractor relationships, security clearances, cost disputes, criminal investigations, terminations, debarment, voluntary disclosures, defective pricing, procurement aspects of corporate mergers, qui tam and whistleblower litigation, teaming agreements and joint ventures, federal grants, small business issues, claims and bid protests, conflicts of interest and protection of proprietary technology.
Among his notable matters, Mr. Dickson has:
- successfully prosecuted and defended numerous bid protests
- persuaded federal authorities not to prosecute or debar companies accused of fraud
- negotiated creative settlements of complex matters
- successfully assisted contractors in cost overrun recoveries
- obtained one of the largest termination settlements ever achieved in a federal design-build "third-party financed" contract
- assisted companies in numerous navigations of the changing currents of "organizational conflicts of interest"
- litigated and resolved issues arising from military and other contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan
Mr. Dickson regularly litigates in the federal courts and before the Government Accountability Office, the federal boards of contract appeals, the Small Business Administration's Office of Hearings and Appeals, a number of special-purpose federal hearing offices, and the state courts and administrative agencies of California.
Before entering private practice, Mr. Dickson was on active duty for more than six years with the Air Force as an attorney specializing in contract law issues and criminal proceedings. After entering the private sector, he continued his Air Force work part-time with the Judge Advocate General's Department Reserve, rising to the grade of Colonel.
Mr. Dickson has received several national NCMA awards. In addition, he has authored more than 70 publications and papers on public contracting and other topics. Mr. Dickson is a frequent speaker at legal and contracting association conferences and has taught private, public and in-house courses on contract law.