HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (May 23, 2014) -- More than 150 military and civilian Army attorneys from across the U.S Army Materiel Command met here for continuing education and guidance on changes to law, regulations and policies.
AMC hosted its 2014 Continuing Legal Education Program at the Embassy Suites May 19-22.
The program also offered training on the federal acquisition policy and procedures, competition and source selection, ethics, fiscal law, employment and labor issues, environmental law, Foreign Military Sales, electronic discovery, and the Army Conference Policy.
Gen. Dennis L. Via, AMC commander took the opportunity to thank, congratulate, and give guidance to the attorneys supporting the AMC mission.
"Thank you first for being here. I don't have to remind all of you in the room that this has been a very challenging year not only for our attorneys but for our Army, the Department of Defense and especially for our civilians," said Via.
Via said the impacts of sequestration including furloughs, the government shutdown and a constrained budget,naturally resulted in employee grievances.
"Several hundreds of theses appeals and grievances have been adjudicated and AMC has, so far, a 100 percent success rate," Via said, attributing the command's success to the hard work and professionalism of lawyers at depots, arsenals, major subordinate commands and the AMC headquarters legal office.
Via said moving forward, fiscal uncertainty would remain a challenge and he talked of plans to
manage staff reductions as a result of sequestration by leveraging all tools in the in the human resources system.
"We should be successful without resorting to the last resort," Via said, referring to a reduction in force.
Following his remarks, Via honored Capt. Brian Stransky, Andrew Telschow and Scott Johnson for their legal counsel in Afghanistan under the 401st Army Field Support Brigade.
Other honors bestowed during the program include the following:
- Buckley Managerial Excellence Award: Mark Blasko, Communications Electronic Command
- Parise Team Award: Army Sustainment Command EAGLE Team: Erica Harder-Smith, Alex Cahill, Tim Reier and Jessica Armstrong
- Parise Team Award: Furlough Team: Betty Baxter, Christine Kachan, Tiffany Hill and Steven Whittington, TACOM
- Korte Preventive Law Award: David DiCenso, Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command
- Allen Attorney of the Year: Toby Davis, Army Contracting Command
- Faggioli AMC Achievement Award: Katie MacKenzie, Army Contracting Command
- Faggioli AMC Achievement Award: Denise Marrama, U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command
- Faggioli AMC Achievement Award: Lt. Col. Nancy Waldron, Headquarters AMC
- AMC Editor's Award: Kate Drost, Headquarters AMC
Social Sharing