Professional Qualifications

With more than 50 years of practice, Mr. O’Donnell has specialized in public contract and construction law at the federal, state and local levels. He has litigated cases in federal and state trial and appellate courts, the boards of contract appeals and the Government Accountability Office. Representative cases include: a series of successful GAO and Court of Federal Claims bid protests concerning IT, cyber security and satellite communications issues; restructure of a multibillion dollar classified contract on behalf of a major defense contractor; defense of a national construction contractor and its pipe supplier against latent defect claims on a significant aqueduct project; trial of a termination dispute between the prime and subcontractor on a major state IT systems development contract; successful resolution of a multimillion dollar cost accounting standards dispute with the government on behalf of an aerospace material contractor; pursuing actions relating to power plant and water treatment plant construction projects on behalf of general contractors, subcontractors and the suppliers and fabricators of principal components; federal and state false claim act actions, and federal, state and local bid protests relating to equipment, software, IT, cyber, satellite communications, construction and service contracts, including the $35 billion Air Force Air Tanker procurement, major post-Katrina hurricane protection projects in and around New Orleans and recent cloud computing contracts for DoD and other agencies.

Mr. O’Donnell is widely recognized as one of the leading government contracts lawyers in the country. Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyer for Business, ranks him in Tier 1 as one of the top lawyers in the practice nationwide and calls him a “terrific lawyer” and “a leading light in the field.” The Legal 500 has agreed identifying him as one of the nation’s ten leading government contracts lawyers. He is also included in the annual list of “Best Lawyers in America” and is recognized as one of the nation’s outstanding public procurement and construction lawyers in Who’s Who Legal. Mr. O’Donnell is a former member of the Bid Protest and Government Contracts Committee of the Court of Federal Claims Advisory Council. He has served as chair and vice-chair of several committees of the ABA Public Contract Law Section as well as on the Executive Committee of the California State Bar’s Public Law Section.  Mr. O’Donnell has written and lectured on a wide variety of government contract and construction issues. He is presently on the Advisory Committee for The Government Contractor and the Associated General Contractors of California Legal Advisory Committee and is a member of the ABA Forum Committee on the Construction Industry. He is President of the Board of the Museum of Craft and Design, and is also a Trustee and the Secretary of San Francisco Performances.

Education

J.D., Yale Law School
Editor, Yale Law Journal

B.A., Williams College
Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa

Bar Admissions

California
District of Columbia