letter from the career program manager · letter from the career program manager august 2019 ......
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Letter from the Career Program Manager
AUGUST 2019
Greetings CP-56 Attorneys and Paraprofessionals, I am excited to announce some of our new and upcoming initiatives and training opportunities!
I invite everyone to visit the new CP-56 website, found at https://www.jagcnet.army.mil/Sites/CP56.nsf. Our website offers the chance to learn more about our career program, including who is part of CP-56, what resources are available, how to apply for training opportunities, and how to contact us. As always, we encourage you to join and follow CP-56 on mil-Book at https://www.milsuite.mil/book/groups/career-program-56-legal. Our milBook page provides timely information on trainings and other available opportunities. Following us on milBook also provides you with a great plat-form to network with legal professionals across the Army.
Our office has already begun to plan for FY20 training events! There is still time to apply to two competitive professional development op-portunities that will be centrally funded by our office (subject to re-ceipt of FY20 funding from Congress). From November 5-8 2019, The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School will hold the
Government Contract and Fiscal Law New Developments Course in Charlottesville, VA. The course focuses on significant changes and updates for senior government attorneys in the area of government contract and fiscal law policy. Guest speakers will emphasize new developments and policy insights, along with the advanced contract and fiscal law instruction. U.S. Army civilian at-torneys at the GS-14/15 level, who have a minimum of three years of experience as a contract and fiscal law attorney, may apply until September 6, 2019 for centralized funding to attend the course.
Additionally, the Federal Employment Law Training Group is holding MSPB and EEOC Hearing Practices Week from November 18-22, 2019 in Washington, DC. The workshop concen-trates on teaching attorneys to practice effectively and successfully during federal employment law administrative hearings. Attendees will have the opportunity to prepare and try a case from start to finish. At the conclusion of the mock-hearing, an Administrative Judge will review and critique the attorneys’ performance, as well as issue a decision. U.S. Army attorneys in CP-56 may apply until September 6, 2019 for centralized funding to attend the course.
In order to apply for CP-56 funded training, applicants must create a GoArmyEd student account (www.goarmyed.com), complete the CP-56 Competitive Professional Development Appli-cation, and provide a copy of their Civilian Career Report. All applications and questions should be addressed to Ms. Sarilyn Leary at [email protected] or at 703-693-0545.
Finally, we are hosting the annual Career Program Planning Board (CPPB) meeting on September 10, 2019 at the Pentagon and we are thrilled that a number of our civilian leaders from legal offices across the Army will be joining us either in person or VTC. We anticipate discussions revolving around a year-end review; the Army’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey; and effective training given the new budget realities. I look forward to sharing the outcome of our CPPB in our next quarterly newsletter. Wishing everyone a happy end to the 2019 Fiscal Year!
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me or any member of my team.
Sincerely,
Will Koon
William J. Koon, Chief, Civilian Personnel Management and
CP-56
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Questions?
William J. Koon
571-256-2936
Sarilyn Leary
703-693-0545
Sarah Ford
571-256-2868
LESSONS FOR THE COLLECTIVE—CP-56 CONTINUING EDUCATION SERIES
By: Sarah Ford, Co-Authored by Karen Ladymon and Rawaty Yim
Upcoming issues of our newsletter will feature the experiences, takeaways, and lessons learned from one or two CP-56 members, who have attended one of the courses sponsored through our career pro-gram. We hope to use the insights gained from our CP-56 community members to expand our collective knowledge base and generate in-formative discussion on a wide array of subject areas. This quarter I had the pleasure of connecting with two paralegals, who shared their experiences at the Masters in Government Contracting Course and the Department of Justice’s Freedom of Information Act course.
Karen Ladymon works as a paralegal specialist at the Contracts and Fiscal Law Division, U.S. Army Legal Services Agency (USALSA), Fort Belvoir, VA. Karen shared the insights she gained from the Masters in Government Contracting Course taught by Michael Killham over the course of five days during the end of March. Her 26 classmates includ-ed attorneys and paraprofessionals from the Office of The Judge Advo-cate General, Army Materiel Command, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Office of General Counsel. Karen had high praise for the course and was a wealth of new knowledge upon her return. She shared her newly-acquired knowledge and insight with me through a virtual inter-view.
Can you give me a little bit of an overview on the Masters in Gov-ernment Contracting course?
This course is designed for government contract professionals who want to learn more about how to more effectively review, negotiate, draft, and administer government contracts. This course spanned five full days and was taught by Mr. Michael Killham. Mr. Killham is a true subject matter expert with approximately twenty years of experience as an Army attorney specializing in government contracts, followed by an-other twenty years in the public sector working as legal counsel for vari-ous contractors in their government contract divisions. While some knowledge of government contracts would be helpful, it is not essential to understand the topics covered in this course. This course covered almost all aspects of government contracting, from a thorough overview of the entire process from authority to contract to closeout, as well as specific topics such as claims, Contractor Performance Assessment Reports (CPARS), and cost accounting practices.
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Questions?
William J. Koon
571-256-2936
Sarilyn Leary
703-693-0545
Sarah Ford
571-256-2868
UPCOMING COURSES
Government Contracts and Fiscal Law New
Developments Course
November 5-8, 2019
APPLY BY: SEPTEMBER 6TH
MSPB and EEOC Hearing Practices Week
November 18-22, 2019
APPLY BY: SEPTEMBER 6TH
LESSONS FOR THE COLLECTIVE—CP-56 CONTINUING EDUCATION SERIES
(Con’t. from the previous page)
Through his blended use of lecture, written materials, and the informal sharing of personal experience, Mr. Killham taught the class how to: decode legal terms and government acronyms; understand the FAR; properly craft a requirement; draft proper bid documents; negotiate, award, administer, and closeout or terminate a contract; and handle contractor claims. His explanation of legal terms and processes was clear and concise and the real world examples provide a solid founda-tion and understanding of government contracting.
What was the most valuable takeaway from the course?
The overview of government contracting was the most valuable as we covered topics from properly defining the government’s requirements pre-bid through defending claims after contract end. There are so many intricacies, terms, and regulations involved in government con-tracts, I find myself referring to the course material and my notes of-ten.
What “best practice” did you learn from the course?
The best practice is to seek out information. There are many printed resources available for research, as well as subject matter experts in the Army willing to share their knowledge and experience. No matter how odd or confusing a contract scenario seems to you, someone else has probably already dealt with something similar and can offer guidance.
What are practices of other federal agencies we could incorpo-rate within Army legal practices?
While I did not pick up any differences in contract administration and claim defense from the other attendees, I have an observation
regarding training in general. It appeared from the attendee introductions that the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) encourages training outside their normal job duties. The USACE attendees, [who were] all attorneys, came from different occupational specialties with-in the legal field. This mindset might be of inter-est [across the Army legal field], especially in lo-cations where legal professionals tend to gap fill or as an enhanced professional development op-portunity used in conjunction with Individual De-velopment Plans.
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Questions?
William J. Koon
571-256-2936
Sarilyn Leary
703-693-0545
Sarah Ford
571-256-2868
UPCOMING COURSES
Government Contracts and Fiscal Law New
Developments Course
November 5-8, 2019
APPLY BY: SEPTEMBER 6TH
MSPB and EEOC Hearing Practices Week
November 18-22, 2019
APPLY BY: SEPTEMBER 6TH
LESSONS FOR THE COLLECTIVE—CP-56 CONTINUING EDUCATION SERIES
Rawaty Yim works as a paralegal specialist with the South Pa-cific Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The primary focus of her work is administrative law and the Freedom of Information Act. She had the opportunity to attend the Department of Justice’s Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA) Training from 17-19 April 2019 in Washington, D.C.
The FOIA Training was open to attorneys and paraprofession-als across the federal government and offered lectures and work-shops that provided a comprehensive overview of the FOIA including: procedural requirement and exemptions; principles for processing FOIA requests from start to finish; proactive disclosure requirements; and the interface between FOIA and the Privacy Act. Rawaty thor-oughly enjoyed her experience at the FOIA course.
Did the course correct any previous misconceptions you had about handling FOIA matters?
This was my very first FOIA course, so I did not have any preconcep-tions. I have better knowledge, understanding, appreciation, and training on FOIA. I think supervisor and managerial positions [outside of legal offices] should attend these [types of] courses to have a better grasp of the details that go into FOIA requests.
What was the most valuable takeaway?
There were plenty of takeaways from this course. The top on my list is the "Rule of 3." If there are more than 3-requests on the same mat-ter, it should automatically be posted on the agency's FOIA library page so that the future requesters can refer to the website.
NOTE: Rawaty mentioned how she was eager to implement this con-cept into her office’s practices and the efficiencies that would result.
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Questions?
William J. Koon
571-256-2936
Sarilyn Leary
703-693-0545
Sarah Ford
571-256-2868
UPCOMING COURSES
Government Contracts and Fiscal Law New
Developments Course
November 5-8, 2019
APPLY BY: SEPTEMBER 6TH
MSPB and EEOC Hearing Practices Week
November 18-22, 2019
APPLY BY: SEPTEMBER 6TH
LESSONS FOR THE COLLECTIVE—CP-56 CONTINUING EDUCATION SERIES
What best practice did you learn from the course?
There were a lot of great practices. I think having documentations or records of any communications with requesters will keep you organize in the long-run.
What are other federal agencies doing differently that we could implement in the Army?
I noticed that we do not have a centralized FOIA team or webpage that we can seek information (like templates, directories and etc.), help, and guidance. My trainings are all from FOIA courses and from other paraprofessionals. I appreciate that DOJ has a checklist of FOIA procedures and application of exemptions that I will definitely make use of [moving forward].
If you are interested in contributing to our series, please contact Ms. Sarah Ford at [email protected].