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Timothy McHugh

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Tim is a first-chair litigator who handles high-profile cases and obtains key approvals for clients in highly regulated sectors. From state agencies to the U.S. Supreme Court, he resolves his clients’ most complex challenges.

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1. The Real Risk of Cybersecurity: Choosing to be Unaware

Since 2016, the federal government has implemented numerous procurement regulations and associated contract clauses to address cybersecurity by requiring contractors to adopt various controls and standards to protect sensitive, unclassified information, and to harden information technology (IT) systems to make them more resilient to all manner of cyber hacks. The easy part (not that it was at all easy) was developing the controls and standards – NIST SP 800-171 (currently up to Rev. 3), and contract clauses (most notably, FAR 52.204-21, and DFARS 252.204-7012, 7019, 7020, 7021, and others). The difficult part is getting contractors to take seriously the obligation to invest in cybersecurity.Continue Reading Federal Cybersecurity Requirements Ought Not Be Ignored by Contractors

This blog post was republished in the October 2024 edition of Surety Bond Quarterly.

Did the 2023 update to the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, which apply to contractors and subcontractors performing on certain federally funded or assisted contracts, appropriately modernize or unduly expand the Davis Bacon Act’s (DBA) prevailing wage rule?[1] Following the Department of Labor’s (DOL) enactment of a final resolution on August 23, 2023 (final rule),[2] interested parties immediately challenged the final rule, seeking a preliminary injunction. The parties argued that specified portions of § 5.2 and the entirety of § 5.5(e) in the final rule exceed the DOL’s authority under the DBA and will result in undue hardship and irreparable harm for government contractors in the construction industry.Continue Reading Contractor’s Guide to the Revised Davis-Bacon Act Regulations

In 2024, the landscape of state attorneys general (AGs) is poised for significant change, with numerous elections and regulatory actions reshaping priorities and enforcement strategies. This dynamic environment reflects the critical role AGs play in addressing key issues across various sectors, from environmental regulations and consumer protection to health care and privacy. As state AGs continue to influence policy and legal frameworks, their actions will have far-reaching implications for businesses and consumers alike. Troutman Pepper’s State AG team is pleased to provide you with this mid-year review summarizing the activities in this regulatory space over the past six months.Continue Reading 2024 Mid-Year Review: State AGs Shaping Regulatory Landscapes

In a recent ruling, the California Court of Appeal largely affirmed a lower court’s decision from March 2022, finding that Ashford University (now known as University of Arizona Global Campus), an online, for-profit college, had engaged in deceptive recruitment practices vis-à-vis veterans eligible for federal GI Bill educational benefits. California Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta initiated the action in November 2017, alleging that Ashford University had caused harm to a significant number of students, many of whom were veterans, by disseminating false and misleading statements about career outcomes, cost and financial aid, pace of degree programs, and transfer credits.Continue Reading California AG Bonta Upholds $21M Penalty Against Ashford University Over GI Bill Errors

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) most recent regulatory agenda, it plans to finalize a proposed rule that would make significant changes to requirements applicable to educational institutions that enroll students utilizing VA benefits, such as under the extremely popular Chapter 33 Post-9/11 GI Bill and Chapter 31 Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E) programs, both of which pay tuition and fees directly to schools. The new regulations, which are expected to become final in April and go into effect shortly thereafter, will implement the Veterans Benefits and Transition Act of 2018. As the Congressional Research Service explained, that bill made “a number of changes to educational benefits.”Continue Reading VA to Revise Educational Institution Requirements Under the 2018 Veterans Benefits and Transition Act

Published in Infrastructure, Volume 62, Number 4, Summer 2023. © 2023 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

Nuclear energy has long been a significant source of reliable, clean energy within the United States. In 2021 alone, nuclear energy accounted for approximately 20 percent of electricity generated in the country and 50 percent of its carbon-free electricity. And while some sources of carbon-free generation are necessarily intermittent, nuclear generation has a high-capacity factor, capable of running at all hours of the day.

Continue Reading Advancing Nuclear Energy: The Role of Advanced Technologies in a Changing Political and Regulatory Landscape

On April 14, a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general from across the country joined forces to protect the rights of military veterans, which if successful would secure full educational benefits potentially worth billions of dollars for about 1.7 million post-9/11-era veterans and counting. Virginia AG Jason Miyares led the coalition of 33 states and the District of Columbia[1] in filing an amici brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the Court to safeguard veterans’ educational benefits and reaffirm the pro-veteran canon of construction, which traces its roots to the founding of the United States. Troutman Pepper’s State Attorneys General and Appellate + Supreme Court practices played a pivotal role in securing this bipartisan coalition, leveraging the firm’s extensive experience and expertise in handling high-profile legal matters involving state AGs and before the Supreme Court. The veteran is also represented pro bono by Troutman Pepper attorneys Timothy McHugh, Misha Tseytlin, Kevin LeRoy, Abbey Thornhill, and Trey Smith, among others, and David DePippo from Dominion Energy.Continue Reading State AG Bipartisan Coalition Moves Jointly to Protect Veterans’ Rights

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”) (together the “Agencies”) have continued working on a proposed rule to revise the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act (CWA or Act), which will soon move to the next stage of agency consideration.[1]…

As routinely covered at Regulatory Oversight, state attorneys general have assumed an ever-more prominent role in driving national regulatory policy through advocacy and enforcement activities.[1] Underlying many of these efforts is an aggressive focus on environmental justice by the state attorneys general that reaches further than federal efforts. Most recently in U.S. EPA…

The Department of Justice has loosened restrictions on the use of agency guidance documents to establish violations of underlying legal requirements in enforcement actions and other litigation. According to a memorandum by Attorney General Garland, DOJ attorneys may now “rely on relevant guidance documents in any appropriate and lawful circumstances, including when a guidance document…