Zohra Tejani

Office

Washington, DC

Practices

Technology Transactions

Industries

Education & Admissions

J.D., Georgetown University Law Center

B.A., cum laude, Economics
Georgetown University

Admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Virginia

As a lawyer with 25 years of experience primarily at the intersection of technology and public sector, Zohra believes that innovation from private sector technology companies can help governments solve big problems and better serve citizens.

Zohra helps technology and life science companies traverse legal and regulatory issues and achieve business objectives with their government grantors and public sector customers. For those companies doing business in the public sector, Zohra brings a thoughtful, creative approach to negotiating must-win deals. Leveraging in-house experience at Microsoft and VMware, she is a trusted advisor to founders, C-level executives, general counsel, and leaders in sales, product engineering, and information security. Zohra is also a Vice-Chair of the Cybersecurity, Privacy and Emerging Technology Committee of the ABA Public Contract Law Section.

Zohra works with companies of all sizes, helping to close funding agreements and procurement contracts and counsel on risks inherent with transacting with public sector entities including with US Federal (e.g., US Department of Defense), US State, and Local Governments, K12, Higher-Ed, quasi-governmental entities (e.g., US Postal Service), international organizations (e.g., United Nations), and tribal nations. She has a passion for emerging technologies and especially enjoys working with companies in the govtech, defense tech, civic tech, edtech, and smart city sectors.

Zohra’s practice is primarily focused in three areas:

Counseling on government grants and contracts, intellectual property, and cybersecurity law:

Zohra counsels on a range of government funding and procurement and technology matters, including government contracts, cybersecurity, software vulnerabilities, and data protection; intellectual property issues such as copyrights in software, data rights, and trade secrets; and ethics, and integrity issues including procurement fraud.

Zohra regularly advises clients on the following issues:

Grant eligibility (e.g., SBIR small business size eligibility)
Strategies to protect intellectual property with any engagement with government
Assertion of technical and data rights
Information security and cyber security
Post-award compliance with reporting and disclosures
Strategic protesting
Product compliance
Ethics and compliance issues and programs
Domestic preferences
Using government data to train AI
FedRAMP and Controlled Unclassified Information
NISPOM Rule and Facilities Clearance counseling
Performance challenges and termination
Public-private partnership agreements
Memorandum of Understandings
Grants and funding agreements
Proof of concept and prototype agreements
Development agreements
RFIs/RFPs, and related Non Disclosure and Teaming Agreements
Procurement contracts and subcontracts

Technology Transactions with the Government:

Zohra has extensive experience drafting, negotiating, and counseling on high-stakes government contracts, subcontracts, and RFX for commercial technology products and services. Zohra also helps emerging technology companies with their government funding and prototype agreements.

Specific agreements she assists with include:

Public-private partnership agreements
Memorandum of Understandings
Grants and funding agreements
Proof of concept and prototype agreements
Development agreements
RFIs/RFPs, and related Non Disclosure and Teaming Agreements
Procurement contracts and subcontracts

Policy Advisory:

Zohra helps companies understand the impact of proposed legislation and regulations on their technology supply chain, business models, and ultimately their bottom lines. She not only identifies potential areas of risk but also helps companies craft their policy position to facilitate their engagement with policymakers.

Specifically, she helps executives and government affairs professionals with:

Tracking legislation and regulations that impact government use, adoption, funding, and procurement of innovative technologies
Analyzing the potential impact of proposed statutes and regulations on technology product development and manufacturing, business models, information and cyber security
Drafting position statements, talking points, and white papers
Collaborating with industry groups on behalf of companies to comment on draft legislation, proposed regulations or standards

Government Grants and Contracts Counseling

Advised on the implications of a merger on the target company’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants.
Strategically protested (pre-award), on behalf of a large tech company, unjustified technical specifications in a US Federal RFP that were unfairly limiting competition, resulting in the contracting officer amending the RFP, opening the client’s path to winning the award.
Developed a tailored checklist for the legal team of a SaaS company to guide the FedRAMP Significant Change process when rolling out new features and services.
Counseled the product team of an on-premises software company on its plans to launch a SaaS offering regarding FedRAMP and FedRAMP Plus (based on the DoD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide).
Counseled a software company about product requirements regarding Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and Controlled Defense Information (CDI), including guidance on NIST SP 800-171 rev 2.
Counseled a SaaS company doing business with state governments on special addenda for protecting FBI Criminal Justice Information based on the CJIS Policy and Federal Tax Information in accordance with IRS Pub. 1075.
Counseled a 3D Earth modeling, sensing, and scanning start-up on protecting their intellectual property when submitting R&D proposals to a US federal government agency.
Advised an autonomous transportation company analyze a potential organizational conflict of interest issue in the context of a DoD contract.
Advised companies of various sizes with Section 889 (2019 NDAA) compliance.

Technology Transactions with the Government

Represented a smart city startup (transportation domain) in a negotiation with a systems integrator for a complex multiyear, multimillion dollar contract to provide its AI-enabled system for local government entities.
Served as the lead attorney for a global tech giant negotiating a historic consolidated enterprise license agreement with the US Department of Defense.
Represented a $10B tech giant negotiating with an ITC-focused government agency responsible for a multi-billion-plus annual spend for a multiyear, multimillion dollar cloud services contract.
Advised leadership team of a smart city startup about the legal risks with a multimillion-dollar prime contract with a transportation agency.

Policy Advisory

Helped the government affairs team of a global SaaS company develop their policy position on proposed security incident notification laws.
Helped a global software company with strategic policy projects regarding accessibility standards for SaaS with educational institutions.
Helped the government affairs team of a global enterprise software company evaluate proposed state legislation potentially impacting its technology offerings.
Helped a global software company with strategic policy projects regarding information security standards applicable to law enforcement agencies.
Represented a global software company with government procurement industry groups’ efforts on tracking and commenting on proposed legislation.

Government Grants and Contracts Counseling

Advised on the implications of a merger on the target company’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants.
Strategically protested (pre-award), on behalf of a large tech company, unjustified technical specifications in a US Federal RFP that were unfairly limiting competition, resulting in the contracting officer amending the RFP, opening the client’s path to winning the award.
Developed a tailored checklist for the legal team of a SaaS company to guide the FedRAMP Significant Change process when rolling out new features and services.
Counseled the product team of an on-premises software company on its plans to launch a SaaS offering regarding FedRAMP and FedRAMP Plus (based on the DoD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide).
Counseled a software company about product requirements regarding Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and Controlled Defense Information (CDI), including guidance on NIST SP 800-171 rev 2.
Counseled a SaaS company doing business with state governments on special addenda for protecting FBI Criminal Justice Information based on the CJIS Policy and Federal Tax Information in accordance with IRS Pub. 1075.
Counseled a 3D Earth modeling, sensing, and scanning start-up on protecting their intellectual property when submitting R&D proposals to a US federal government agency.
Advised an autonomous transportation company analyze a potential organizational conflict of interest issue in the context of a DoD contract.
Advised companies of various sizes with Section 889 (2019 NDAA) compliance.

Technology Transactions with the Government

Represented a smart city startup (transportation domain) in a negotiation with a systems integrator for a complex multiyear, multimillion dollar contract to provide its AI-enabled system for local government entities.
Served as the lead attorney for a global tech giant negotiating a historic consolidated enterprise license agreement with the US Department of Defense.
Represented a $10B tech giant negotiating with an ITC-focused government agency responsible for a multi-billion-plus annual spend for a multiyear, multimillion dollar cloud services contract.
Advised leadership team of a smart city startup about the legal risks with a multimillion-dollar prime contract with a transportation agency.

Policy Advisory

Helped the government affairs team of a global SaaS company develop their policy position on proposed security incident notification laws.
Helped a global software company with strategic policy projects regarding accessibility standards for SaaS with educational institutions.
Helped the government affairs team of a global enterprise software company evaluate proposed state legislation potentially impacting its technology offerings.
Helped a global software company with strategic policy projects regarding information security standards applicable to law enforcement agencies.
Represented a global software company with government procurement industry groups’ efforts on tracking and commenting on proposed legislation.

"FARout: Everything You Need to Know About Government Contracts," Space Beach Law Lab, February 2024 (speaker)
"Licensing Software to the U.S. Federal Government: Legal Consideration and Enforcing Rights," Fenwick CLE Series, January 2024 (co-presenter)
“Top Legal Issues When Contracting with Government Agencies for AI-based Solutions,” GovAI Summit, December 2023 (presenter)
"The Future of AI Regulation: Informative Q&A on Biden's Executive Order," November 2023 (speaker)
"Balancing Innovation with National Security in Federal Procurement," ABA Annual Meeting, August 2023 (moderator)
"Legal Perspective: Strategic IP and Funding Considerations for Innovative Companies," TechConnect World Program, June 2023 (panelist)
“SBIR for In-House Counsel,” Fenwick CLE Speaker Series, January 2023 (co-presenter)
"In-House and Outside Counsel Pairs Share Best Practices," Hispanic National Bar Association Corporate Counsel Conference, March 2022 (panelist)
"Government Contract Compliance, Unit 3: Supply Chain Compliance with Emphasis on Cybersecurity," National Contract Management Association, National Education Seminar, December 2021 (trainer)
"Government Contracts: Year in Review and Issues to Watch in 2020," Association of Corporate Counsel National Capital Region and Womble Bond Dickinson, January 2020 (panelist)
"Identifying and Contracting with a Cloud Services Provider You Can Trust," Association of Corporate Counsel Annual Meeting, October 2017 (panelist)
"Overcoming Obstacles to Innovation in Defense Contracting" Federal Circuit Bar Association Bench & Bar Conference, June 2017 (panelist)
"A Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Hot Topics in Commercial Items Contracting" ABA Section of Public Contract Law Mid-Year Meeting, November 2015 (panelist)
"Cloud Computing: How State and Local Governments Can Access its Benefits and Manage the Risks," ABA Section of Public Contract Law 10th Annual State & Local Procurement Symposium, April 2015 (panelist)
"Government Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software" ABA Section of Public Contract Law Fall Educational Program, Government Contracting in a Tech-Savvy World, October 2014 (panelist)

"FARout: Everything You Need to Know About Government Contracts," Space Beach Law Lab, February 2024 (speaker)
"Licensing Software to the U.S. Federal Government: Legal Consideration and Enforcing Rights," Fenwick CLE Series, January 2024 (co-presenter)
“Top Legal Issues When Contracting with Government Agencies for AI-based Solutions,” GovAI Summit, December 2023 (presenter)
"The Future of AI Regulation: Informative Q&A on Biden's Executive Order," November 2023 (speaker)
"Balancing Innovation with National Security in Federal Procurement," ABA Annual Meeting, August 2023 (moderator)
"Legal Perspective: Strategic IP and Funding Considerations for Innovative Companies," TechConnect World Program, June 2023 (panelist)
“SBIR for In-House Counsel,” Fenwick CLE Speaker Series, January 2023 (co-presenter)
"In-House and Outside Counsel Pairs Share Best Practices," Hispanic National Bar Association Corporate Counsel Conference, March 2022 (panelist)
"Government Contract Compliance, Unit 3: Supply Chain Compliance with Emphasis on Cybersecurity," National Contract Management Association, National Education Seminar, December 2021 (trainer)
"Government Contracts: Year in Review and Issues to Watch in 2020," Association of Corporate Counsel National Capital Region and Womble Bond Dickinson, January 2020 (panelist)
"Identifying and Contracting with a Cloud Services Provider You Can Trust," Association of Corporate Counsel Annual Meeting, October 2017 (panelist)
"Overcoming Obstacles to Innovation in Defense Contracting" Federal Circuit Bar Association Bench & Bar Conference, June 2017 (panelist)
"A Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Hot Topics in Commercial Items Contracting" ABA Section of Public Contract Law Mid-Year Meeting, November 2015 (panelist)
"Cloud Computing: How State and Local Governments Can Access its Benefits and Manage the Risks," ABA Section of Public Contract Law 10th Annual State & Local Procurement Symposium, April 2015 (panelist)
"Government Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software" ABA Section of Public Contract Law Fall Educational Program, Government Contracting in a Tech-Savvy World, October 2014 (panelist)