Examples of Ryan’s experience include:

• Won summary judgment in Maryland federal court for a global aerospace, defense, information, and services company after a former employee sued the company under the False Claims Act for whistleblower retaliation related to a military product that jammed the signal of roadside bombs in combat zones. Secured a unanimous affirmation of that dismissal on appeal to the Fourth Circuit, won a judgment against the employee for breach of contract, and resolved parallel government investigations with no negative action.
• Successfully protested the U.S. Navy’s exclusion of a service-disabled, veteran-owned IT company from consideration during competitive solicitation, forcing the navy to take corrective action and ultimately include the company in a $100 million multiple-award contract.
• Successfully quashed several writs of attachment against the assets of a U.S. based, international news channel that threatened to freeze the broadcast company’s operations.
• Represented seller of a small, disadvantaged government contracting company specializing in professional services during successful acquisition of the company and its ongoing federal contracts.
• Successfully negotiated settlement and dismissal of various business lawsuits, including employee profit sharing dispute with a government contractor, claim for fraudulent transfer of assets in a Ponzi scheme, and subcontractor claim for payment against prime federal contractor.
• Successfully settled sweeping shareholder derivative case for publicly traded financial institution and represented institution in resolving related government inquiries by various agencies.

Pro Bono Representation

• Represented an Alabama death row inmate in multiple state and federal habeas corpus proceedings, arguing ineffective assistance of original counsel, intellectual disability of defendant, and several other legal deficiencies warranting reversal of capital sentence; persuaded Alabama Supreme Court to limit application of procedural bar.
• Represented a nonprofit civic engagement organization in federal litigation to uphold laws prohibiting pension fund managers from donating to the campaigns of elected officials who award pension contracts.
• Represented a group of local governments, elected officials, nonprofit organizations, and industry groups in proceedings with a Maryland public utilities regulator addressing the proposed merger of a gas and utilities conglomerate with a utilities holdings company. Advocated for reliability enhancements, consumer protections, investments in clean and renewable energy, distributed energy generation, and performance-based ratemaking to align utility performance with the public interest. Arguments and testimony presented on behalf of the coalition were cited extensively by the strong dissenting opinion of two of the five commissioners.