Common Ethical Issues in Government Contracting

Claude M. Millman is a partner at Kostelanetz & Fink, LLP, where he leads the firm’s commercial civil litigation efforts and its government procurement and contracting practice.  He also advises clients on dealing with government agencies on regulatory, land use and environmental matters. After graduating from Stanford University and Columbia Law School, Mr. Millman clerked for a federal judge in Manhattan and then served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Manhattan.  Mr. Millman was then appointed as a Deputy Commissioner of the agency that is now the N.Y.C. Business Integrity Commission. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Millman served as Mayor Giuliani’s City Chief Procurement Officer (Director, Mayor’s Office of Contracts Services). Mr. Millman was also the Executive Director of the 1999 N.Y.C. Charter Revision Commission and a Commissioner of the 2001 N.Y.C. Charter Revision Commission.  Prior to joining Kostelanetz & Fink, Mr. Millman was a partner at Proskauer Rose LLP for eight years. Mr. Millman has been ranked in “Best Lawyers of America” and “Super Lawyers.” He has a Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating of 5 out of 5 (“AV” Rating, “Preeminent”) in Litigation, Government Contracts, and Commercial Law. In 2011, he was elected to the Fellowship of the Litigation Counsel of America. Much of Mr. Millman’s practice involves New York City and New York State government matters.  He advises clients on a broad range of government contracting and procurement questions, including ethics issues. He has represented respondents in New York City government ethics cases. His government ethics work runs the gamut from advice, to representation during investigations, to representation of charged respondents. He recently gave a presentation at the N.Y.C. Seminar on Ethics in City Government entitled “Ethics is a Two-Way Street: Why Contractors, Grantees, and Lobbyists Can’t Ignore NYC’s Ethics Rules.”