Federal Contractor Compliance After the Affirmative Action Rollback: The October 26 Deadline and False Claims Exposure

Theodore L. Kornobis, Partner | K&L Gates

Theodore L. Kornobis is a partner in the White Collar Defense and Investigations practice at K&L Gates in Washington, DC. His practice includes Federal, State, and Local False Claims Act matters, and he defends qui tam actions alongside securities class actions, shareholder derivative lawsuits, and challenges to agency rulemaking. He guides clients through high-stakes government investigations and enforcement actions involving the Department of Justice, the SEC, FINRA, FERC, and the Department of Transportation, defends complex civil and white collar criminal litigation, and conducts sensitive internal investigations for entities and their boards of directors.

• Education & Credentials

Ted earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center in 2009 and his B.A., magna cum laude, from George Washington University in 2005. He is admitted to the District of Columbia and New York bars, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Second Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia, the District of Nebraska, and the Southern District of New York. He also holds a Certification in Legal Project Management from the LPM Institute.

• Recognition & Leadership

The Legal 500 United States recognized Ted in 2024 as a Recommended Lawyer for corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense, and in 2018 he was selected to the annual Top 40 Under 40 list of Washington, DC legal talent. His recent writing tracks the federal enforcement agenda, including “Clearer carrots and more restrained sticks: Key updates to DOJ corporate enforcement policies” (Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw Today, May 27, 2025) and “Takeaways for SEC enforcement: Looking back at FY 2025 and the first six months of Chairman Atkins” (Reuters Legal News, October 2025). He has been quoted in Bloomberg Law on SEC self-reporting incentives.

• Professional Involvement

Ted’s pro bono work spans housing, civil rights, and child custody matters. He serves as an officer and board member of a nonprofit organization that provides aid to the Washington, DC region homeless population, and he co-leads an annual city-wide clothing drive that distributes tens of thousands of items each year to dozens of shelters.

• Experience

Ted’s work in False Claims Act and qui tam litigation sits within a broader enforcement-defense practice that spans White Collar Defense and Investigations, Internal Investigations, Administrative and Regulatory Law, Securities Enforcement and Financial Regulatory Enforcement, Anti-Money Laundering, Class Action Defense, International Trade, Investment Controls, and National Security, and US Congressional Investigations, with industry depth in energy and financial services. His clients include public and private companies, investment companies, investment advisers, and broker-dealers.

Mathew (Mat) Schutzer, Special Counsel | Sheppard Mullin

Mathew (Mat) Schutzer is special counsel in the Business Trial Practice Group at Sheppard Mullin’s San Diego (Downtown) office. He brings significant government investigations experience from his tenure at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he focused on False Claims Act healthcare fraud matters at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California and investigated and litigated disability rights matters in the Civil Rights Division. In private practice he manages and leads complex civil litigation with a focus on the healthcare and insurance industries and assists clients in resolving disputes with governmental entities and private parties alike.

• Education & Credentials

Mat earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from New York University in 2012, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Brandeis University in 2008, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He is admitted in California and New York and before the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of New York, the District of Columbia, and the Northern District of California.

• Recognition & Leadership

While at the Department of Justice, Mat led a team to a trial court victory in a lawsuit under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act; the court praised the professionalism and “admirable representation” displayed by the attorneys in that trial.

• Professional Involvement

Mathew’s practice focuses on False Claims Act defense, white collar investigations, and healthcare enforcement matters, informed by his years in government service. He served in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, where he litigated disability rights and Title II ADA cases and earned a court commendation for his “admirable representation” in a trial victory, and later as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, where he handled healthcare fraud and False Claims Act enforcement. He clerked for Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and Judge Todd Edelman of the D.C. Superior Court. Mathew writes frequently on government enforcement trends, with recent articles covering the DOJ’s Civil Rights Fraud Initiative and its use of the False Claims Act to target DEI programs, the constitutionality of the FCA’s qui tam provision, DOJ and HHS’s joint False Claims Act working group, and qui tam complaints derived from data mining. He earned his J.D. magna cum laude from New York University School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, and his B.A. summa cum laude from Brandeis University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He is admitted to practice in California and New York.

• Experience

At the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, Mat handled False Claims Act matters concerning millions of dollars of potential fraud against the Medicaid, Medicare, and TRICARE systems, often working in close partnership with the Department of Health & Human Services, the Department of Defense, the FBI, and other state and federal stakeholders. In the Civil Rights Division, many of his matters examined the structure and funding of state Medicaid services for people with disabilities.

Before joining DOJ, Mat clerked for Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and Judge Todd Edelman of the D.C. Superior Court, and he worked in the New York City office of another major law firm. Today his practice centers on complex civil litigation matters in the healthcare and insurance industries.

Holly E. Jacobs, Associate | K&L Gates

Holly E. Jacobs is an associate in the Labor, Employment, and Workplace Safety practice at K&L Gates in Raleigh. She defends employers in civil and administrative employment matters, including discrimination claims under state and federal law and unfair labor practice charges, and counsels employers on compliance issues, internal investigations, employee discipline, labor-management relations, and labor negotiations. Her earlier roles include a position with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

• Education & Credentials

Holly earned her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and an M.A. from Loyola University Chicago in 2023, and a B.M. and a B.A. from the University of Montana in 2018. She is admitted to the bars of Illinois and North Carolina and to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She speaks German.

• Recognition & Leadership

Holly was a Fulbright Scholar with the U.S. Fulbright Commission in 2017–2018. Her employment-law publications include “Independent Contractors: North Carolina” (Thomson Reuters, February 19, 2026) and a co-authored “Employment Discrimination” chapter in School Law: Personnel and Student Issues (2024). She has presented on Title IX legal updates and compliance for the Illinois Association of School Business Officials (April 30, 2025), the American Association of School Personnel Equity in Action Summit (March 31, 2025), and the Chicago Bar Association Young Lawyers’ Section (March 13, 2025), and on responding to employee leave requests under the FMLA and ADA at the Robbins Schwartz College Conference & School Administrators’ Conference (September 2024).

• Professional Involvement

Holly has been a member of the Chicago Bar Association and the American Educational Research Association since 2023.

• Experience

Holly’s practice covers employment disputes, employment investigations, and collective labor and works councils. Before joining K&L Gates she was an associate at an Illinois-based law firm advising K-12 public school and higher education clients on Title IX compliance, discrimination, harassment, labor negotiations, and student-related issues. There she defended clients in labor arbitration and discrimination claims, advised on wage and hour laws, handled unfair labor practice proceedings and complex Title IX complaints, investigations, and hearings, and drafted proposed state legislation for school district lobby groups.

Earlier, Holly served as a law clerk for a public school system in Chicago, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and a Chicago-based higher education law firm, and as a judicial extern to the Honorable Virginia M. Kendall of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

SESSION 1 – Winding Down Affirmative Action Programs Before OFCCP’s October 26 Rescission Deadline | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session walks federal 12 contractor counsel through the three coordinated OFCCP final rules published August 21, 2026, covering the full rescission of EO 11246 implementing regulations effective October 26, 2026, the narrowed Section 503 disability AAP obligations effective September 21, 2026, and the VEVRAA technical amendments also effective September 21, 2026. Attorneys will learn the specific compliance actions contractors must complete before each deadline, what affirmative action obligations survive the rescission, and where over-correction creates new legal exposure. Attendees leave with a working understanding of the staggered effective dates, the state-law trap, and the reverse discrimination enforcement landscape under Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – DEI Certification and False Claims Act Exposure in Federal Contracts | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session examines how the layered DEI certification regime created by EO 14173, EO 14398, and GSA SAM.gov requirements generates False Claims Act liability for federal contractors and grant recipients. Attorneys will learn how DOJ’s Civil Rights Fraud Initiative operates, how the IBM settlement established the enforcement blueprint, and how the implied certification theory and qui tam provisions combine to create both retroactive and prospective exposure. Attendees will leave with a concrete compliance framework—including audit priorities, subcontractor oversight duties, and whistleblower risk mitigation—calibrated to the current enforcement landscape.