ACQ-101 Obtain a Working Knowledge of the FAR, for non-acquisition IT Professionals

Ms. Kassekert is an Attorney on the procurement team in the Procurement, Fiscal & Information Law Branch of the General Law Division in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C.  She is an Adjunct Professor at The Graduate School USA (formerly USDA), and a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School, where she was recently presented with an Award for Dedication in Teaching.  She has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Strayer University’s Arlington, VA campus teaching business law and government contract administration courses, where she received the Provost’s Circle Award for exceptional commitment to excellence in instruction. 

Prior to her current position, Ms. Kassekert was in-house counsel for a company ranked in the top 10 in sales on the GSA Schedule 70 for information technology, as well as a publicly-traded wireless engineering services company.  Her background also includes serving as an associate in the Corporate and Compliance Group at Coudert Brothers and in the Capital Markets Group at McKee Nelson in Washington, DC.

Ms. Kassekert is active in the government contracts community, and serves as a Vice Chair for the Commercial Products and Services Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Public Contract Law and is a council member of the American Bar Association Government and Public Sector Law Division.  She teaches the National Contract Management Association (NCMA) National Education Seminar “The 100 Worse Mistakes in Government Contracts.”  She spoke at the 2010 NCMA World Congress on “Bidding on Foreign Government Contracts” in the Bid and Proposal Track.  She coordinated and moderated the panel, “Legal Challenges for Commercial Companies Seeking a Boost from the Stimulus Package,” at the 2009 American Bar Association Annual Meeting for the Section of Public Contract Law.  In addition, she co-authored “Software Maintenance Payments: Don't Let Them Come Back to Bite You” published in the December 2010 NCMA Contract Management Magazine.

Ms. Kassekert holds a Masters in Laws (LL.M.) in Government Procurement from The George Washington University Law School.  She earned her J.D. with high honors at The George Washington University Law School, and is a member of the Order of the Coif.  She is a Certified Federal Contracts Manager (CFCM) and a Certified Commercial Contracts Manager (CCCM) through NCMA.

Prior to attending law school, she was a program officer at a non-profit organization administering U.S. Government grant programs for professionals in the former Soviet Union and traveled extensively in Russia and Central Asia.  She holds a Masters degree in Russian and East European Studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University with concentrations in security studies and transitional economics.  She is fluent in Russian.