Free Teleconference: Space Act Agreement or Procurement Contract: How NASA Decides
11 October 2011
12 pm EDT
About the teleconference: Courtney Graham, the Associate General Counsel for Commercial and Intellectual Property in the NASA Office of General Counsel, will discuss NASA Space Act Agreements, how they differ from traditional Government procurement contracts under the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), and how NASA decides when to use each type of contract. She will use NASA’s recent decision to switch from Space Act Agreements to FAR-based procurement contracts for the next round of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development program as a case study in how this decision is made.
About the speaker: Courtney Graham is the Associate General Counsel for Commercial and Intellectual Property in the NASA Office of General Counsel. In her role, she leads NASA’s Space Act Agreement policies and practices. Her office also supports interagency and international partnerships and other commercial relationships, including outreach efforts, NASA’s support for STEM education and technology transfer activities. She was in private practice immediately prior to joining NASA, specializing in transactions relating to technology marketing and acquisition, venture capital investments, and corporate mergers and acquisitions. She has also worked in-house with a major government contractor supporting its federal and commercial business units on technology commercialization, government data rights, protection of intellectual property, infringement issues, privacy, and the regulation of online commerce. Courtney received her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and attended the LL.M. program in Intellectual Property at the George Washington University School of Law.
