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Board Finds Liability For Constructive Receipt of Pension Plan Assets at Plan Merger

Client Alert | 1 min read | 06.18.07

Determining entitlement on an appeal by ICI Americas, Inc. (May 23, 2007), of an Army claim for $80 million in surplus pension assets, the ASBCA held that (1) until a contractor “receives” (meaning “to take possession or delivery of”) money, the government has no basis for recovery of a credit under the credits clause, FAR 31.201-5; (2) where no pension costs are paid under a particular contract subject to FAR 31.205-6(j), but not subject full CAS coverage, the CAS 413.50(c)(12) segment closing provisions are not applicable to the contract through FAR 31.205-6(j); (3) a contractor constructively receives pension assets through a pension plan merger and must in accordance with FAR 31.205-6(j)(4), Termination of Defined Benefit Pension Plans, refund the government the equitable portion of any overfunding; and (4) the Board could admit expert reports and testimony that included interpretative material on CAS, affording appropriate weight to such interpretations."

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 06.12.26

DOJ Guidance Backs Away From Disparate Impact Liability

On June 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a formal opinion concluding that the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s (EEOC) existing interpretations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) disparate-impact liability, including the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP), are unconstitutional. According to the opinion, EEOC’s prior interpretations contemplate liability based on disproportionately adverse effects alone, without regard to an employer’s likely intent, rather than treating disparate impact as an evidentiary mechanism to “smoke out” intentional discrimination. DOJ found that this approach functions as a “qualified racial-proportionality mandate” that places “a racial thumb on the scales, often requiring employers to evaluate the racial outcomes of their policies, and to make decisions based on (because of) those racial outcomes.” The opinion fulfills one mandate of Executive Order 14281, which rejected disparate-impact liability insofar as it “creates a near insurmountable presumption that unlawful discrimination exists wherever there are any differences in outcomes among different [demographic groups].”...

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