Attorneys

Steven L. ReedPartner

STEVEN L. REED is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Smith, Currie & Hancock LLP.  Steve joined Smith Currie in May 2007, after retiring from his position as an Administrative Judge, Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, in May 2006.  In January 2008, Steve opened Smith Currie’s Washington, DC office.

In 1988, Steve was assigned as a Hearing Examiner with the Corps of Engineers Board of Contract Appeals (ENG BCA) in Washington, DC, primarily to resolve disputes remaining under an agreement to build extensive military facilities in Saudi Arabia.  He was appointed as an ENG BCA Administrative Judge in 1994.  His docket at the ENG BCA included 225 appeals addressing matters related to locks, dams, navigation, flood prevention, construction of the Washington Metro rail system, Panama Canal construction and procurement, and Saudi military facilities and foreign military sales transactions.

The ENG BCA was merged into the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) in 2000.  From 2000, until Steve’s retirement from the ASBCA in 2006, he mediated, assisted in the resolution of, or adjudicated 136 appeals involving all types of Department of Defense contracts, projects, and facilities, as well as contractual matters arising out of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NASA, the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Justice Department, the Washington Metro bus and rail system, and the Panama Canal Commission.

Since 1995, Steve has mediated or otherwise facilitated 50 alternative dispute resolution (ADR) conferences involving more than 220 separate disputed matters.  Most of these matters involved appeals on his docket at the ENG BCA or ASBCA.  After retirement from the ASBCA in 2006, he co-founded ImMediate LLC, an ADR services firm.

During 1981-88, Steve served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a contracts trial attorney, serving in the Pacific islands, Korea, Japan, Western Europe, and Turkey.  He was involved in the negotiation, settlement, and/or adjudication of hundreds of contract claims involving military and civil works contracts and facilities including hospitals, military housing, military administrative structures, military training areas, communications sites, air and land weapons basing and storage areas and facilities, a chemical weapons demilitarization plant, a flood prevention dam, stream alignments, harbor construction, navigation, maintenance dredging, and ship salvage or recovery.

From 1978-81, Steve was an active Army Judge Advocate officer (Captain), first conducting and reviewing investigations and later defending more than 225 individual soldiers before courts-martial and administrative boards of officers.  As a Judge Advocate, Steve tried more than 60 contested jury trials.

Upon graduation from the Lumpkin School of Law, University of Georgia, in 1977 and continuing to mid-1978, Steve worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Gwinnett County, Georgia, prosecuting more than 75 felony cases before the grand jury, trial juries, bench trials, and the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Prior to entering law school, from 1972-75, Steve served on active duty as an Army Field Artillery officer.

Steve earned his B.S. degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Georgia.  He was a Distinguished Military Graduate and was commissioned as an Army officer and entered active duty on graduation day.  He earlier attended North Georgia College (now North Georgia College and State University), a senior military college.

In addition to his active Army service during 1972-75 and again from 1978-81, Steve continued his parallel military career in the U.S. Army Reserve and the Georgia Army National Guard, retiring from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Colonel in 2002.  His military assignments involved inter-service functions with Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard forces, including special forces units, as well as operations and training with forces from South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and Germany.  During his final six years, he served as a military judge.  Steve’s final position was Chief Senior Military Judge, U.S. Army Reserve, Alexandria, Virginia.  In addition to other awards and decorations, Steve was awarded the Legion of Merit for 30 years of achievement in the military.

Steve and his wife, Linda, enjoy five children and six grandchildren.

Articles & Publications

• Numerous Decisions at the ENG BCA and ASBCA.

• "Cutting the Knot on Concurrent Delay," Construction Briefings, co-author, February 2008.

Classes & Seminars Taught

• What’s Different? Federal Contracts, South Florida AGC, Georgia AGC, 2009
• Federal Contracts Orientation, AGC Annual Convention, 2009
• Practical Construction Project Documentation, AGC Annual Convention, 2009
• Smith Currie Annual Update Seminar, 2008-09
• Construction Delay, Acceleration, and Inefficiency Claims, Federal Publications Seminars, 2007-09 (Las Vegas and Washington, DC)
• Cutting the Knot on Concurrent Delay, Construction Superconference, 2008
• Federal Contractor Ethics and Compliance Programs, New Jersey AGC, 2008
• Contract Terminations, the Death Penalty, ABA Annual Convention, 2008
• Federal and State False Claims, AGC National Convention, 2008
• Mock Mediation, NCMA National Congress, 2008
• The $50 Million Question: The Morse Diesel decisions, Annual AGC Surety and Construction Risk Management Conference, 2008
• Contract Litigation Seminar, Army Judge Advocate General’s School, 2005
• Fraud Panel (moderator), Board of Contract Appeals Judges Association Annual Seminar, 2003
• ADR, Construction Superconference, 2001