With more than 40 years of legal experience in the government contracts sector, Rick Claybrook has successfully brought protests of procurements over $1billion. He has never lost a protest defense, and on multiple occasions has litigated claims to judgment or settlement in excess of $1 billion. Representing clients in all levels of federal and state courts, as well as in domestic and international arbitrations, Rick has logged hundreds of trial days and oral arguments. He is recognized for his extensive writings about government contracts in academic journals.
Prior to joining Nichols Liu, Rick was a partner at Crowell & Moring, a leading government contracts firm, as well as his own practice Claybrook LLC. An independent study by SCOTUSblog judged one of Mr. Claybrook’s briefs as the ninth best of the 2017-18 Supreme Court term. It ranked Mr. Claybrook the third best brief writer and his eponymous firm as the second best amicus firm. The evaluation of briefs was based on “flow, plain English, punchiness, reading happiness, and sentence length”. Mr. Claybrook has appeared on frequent occasions before the Court of Federal Claims, the Government Accountability Office, the boards of contract appeals, federal district and state courts, domestic and international arbitrators, and courts of appeals. He has also been involved in several mini-trials. Rick is rated AV Preeminent 5.0 out of 5 by Martindale-Hubbell and recognized by Super Lawyers 2014 as a leader in his field.
Rick has concentrated in bid protest actions and in litigation of contract and subcontract disputes, including with the United States Postal Service. He also has substantial experience in terminations, changes, and other government and commercial contracting matters.
Rick has authored several law review articles, including It’s Patent that ‘Plain Meaning’ Dictionary Definitions Shouldn’t Dictate: What Phillips Portends for Contract Interpretation, 16 Fed. Cir. B.J. 91 (2006); Standing, Prejudice, and Prejudging in Bid Protest Cases, 33 Public Contract L.J. 535 (2004); and Good Faith in the Terminations and Formation of Federal Contracts, 56 Md. L. Rev. 555 (1997). He was graduated cum laude from Wheaton College (Illinois) in 1973 and with honor from Duke University School of Law in 1976. He was a member of the editorial board of the Duke Law Journal, in which he published two articles. Following his graduation from law school, he clerked for the Honorable Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
He is a member of the American Bar Association and has served for over a decade on the national board of the Christian Legal Society.
Stay Informed
Join our newsletter to get updates on topics that matter most to government contractors.
Nichols Liu LLP © 2024 | Terms of Use