Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Todd Overman was featured in a Law360 Pulse Q&A following his appointment to serve as managing partner of the firm’s office in Washington, D.C. Todd, who also chairs the firm’s Government Contracts Practice answered questions related to his new role leading the firm’s D.C. operations and his background and experience representing federal contractors.
Discussing his priorities early into his new position, Todd highlighted the recent renovations to the office at 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue and his excitement about getting people back to the office. “We have a part-time policy where we do allow remote work, but we’re trying to create an environment where we have not only social events but also community-based events to get people back in the office and excited about coming downtown a few days a week,” he said. “I think an important part of being a lawyer is being around your colleagues, having the opportunity to mentor young lawyers and to help shape and grow an office. You can do some of that virtually, but a lot of it has historically happened in person.”
Beyond his plans for office leadership, Todd discussed his passion for representing federal contractors and the firm’s approach within this practice. “There’s litigation, there’s transactional work, there’s just pure regulatory advice, and I really enjoy advising clients about what it means to do business with the federal government,” Todd said. “What drives me today is that our practice at Bass is a very diverse government contracts practice. I purposely brought the government contracts and international trade practice groups together because there is quite a lot of overlap – not only in our clients but in some of the issues that we handle. I think it provides clients an even better level of service to make sure we’re integrated in our approach, even if we of course hand off issues to one another when we need to.”
Todd also highlighted what excites him about the government contracts practice at the moment, including the firm’s client base and ability to serve their needs. “Our firm, with our rate profile and [conflicts] profile, I’m able to still serve small businesses up to the largest of the large, prime contractors,” he said. “We’re not just a bid protest shop, we’re not just a claims shop, we also just don’t do deals – we really do it all, and that’s what’s exciting.”
The full article, “Bass Berry’s New DC Chief Dishes On Return-To-Office Plans,” was published by Law360 Pulse on June 23 and is available online (subscription required).