Locke Bell

Practice Areas

Locke Bell is a partner in the firm’s Government Contracts & Public Procurement practice.

Locke is a recognized authority on intellectual property in government contracting, which he teaches as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School. Locke is a trusted counselor, litigator, and strategic partner to technology-driven clients as they engage with the U.S. government and others in the complex landscape of public procurement, grants, and government-sponsored initiatives, including nontraditional acquisition methods such as other transaction agreements (OTs or OTAs), cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs), and the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. He represents clients across all industries, including aerospace and defense, commercial software and information technology, and healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology, on issues that arise throughout the full lifecycle of engagement with federal, state, and local governments.

As a litigator, Locke represents clients in data rights challenges and claims related to patent and copyright infringement, trade secrets misappropriation, and reverse-FOIA disputes, as well as complex contract claims, bid protest, and civil fraud and qui tam actions under the False Claims Act. Locke also regularly advises clients on government contracting issues in transactional matters, having guided large and small businesses, private equity firms, and entrepreneurs through more than a hundred mergers and acquisitions. He is a skilled negotiator of commercial and noncommercial licensing agreements, contracts and subcontracts, and teaming agreements, and he is intimately familiar with selling commercial software and other products through the GSA Federal Supply Schedules and other government-wide acquisition vehicles, such as NASA SEWP and DoD ESI, having acted in an in-house capacity on secondment to a large, publicly traded commercial software company.

Locke has been recognized as a Rising Star by Law360 and the National Law Journal. Locke is also involved in the American Bar Association, where he formerly served as co-chair for the Intellectual Property Committee of the Section of Public Contract Law.

Locke holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia and previously worked at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a patent examiner, specializing in mechanical arts. He earned his J.D. with honors from the George Washington University Law School, where he received the Patricia A. Tobin Government Contracts Award for excellence in government contracts law. Locke also clerked for Judge Mary Ellen Coster Williams at the Court of Federal Claims.