Government Contracting Attorney

Mr. Patrick Kernan is a Washington, D.C.–based attorney with over 25 years of experience in government contracts. His public service includes the United States Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security. In these roles, Mr. Kernan served in multiple government-contract legal capacities, including as Chief of Procurement and Fiscal Law for the Multi-National Corps–Iraq, where he led a team of attorneys tasked with improving contracting practices on billions of dollars of contracts for all forces in Iraq. At DHS, he was a senior attorney in the Commercial Law Section advising on contract formation, bid protests, and claims, and later served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Transformation Program, leading a team that provided legal support across the full spectrum of issues confronting a billion-dollar business and information-technology transformation initiative. Earlier in his career, Mr. Kernan litigated claims and bid protests with the U.S. Army Contract Appeals Division. He completed two tours in Iraq and served as the Staff Judge Advocate (Managing Attorney) for the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force–Arabian Peninsula in Balad, Iraq.

In addition to his government-contracts practice, Mr. Kernan advises clients on emerging-technology and compliance matters at the intersection of AI, intellectual property, and cybersecurity. He counsels on AI procurement and vendor management; IP strategy and data-rights allocation in software and AI/ML agreements; cybersecurity and data-privacy compliance (including NIST-aligned controls, incident-response planning, and supply-chain/cyber clauses in federal contracts); and program-level governance for AI, data, and cloud modernization (model risk management, testing/validation, documentation, and audit readiness). He also negotiates global commercial contracts—including software/SaaS, licensing, services, and channel/reseller agreements—and guides clients through complex federal regulatory regimes, ensuring alignment with procurement rules, cybersecurity requirements, and related compliance obligations.