Robert A. Burton is a nationally recognized federal procurement attorney and consultant to contractors that conduct business with the federal government. His current consulting practice focuses on government affairs support, collaborating with contractors and nonprofit associations on acquisition reform and policy initiatives. He also serves as an expert witness on procurement issues in federal and state court and arbitration proceedings.
Burton is a retired partner with the Government Contracts Group at Crowell & Moring, an international law firm headquartered in Washington, DC. At Crowell & Moring, he represented a wide range of companies, assisting them with their marketing strategies for selling to the federal government and avoiding litigation by resolving contract disputes at the agency level.
Before his private-sector career, Burton served in the Executive Office of the President as Acting and Deputy Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), the nation’s top career federal procurement policy official. At OFPP, he issued procurement policy guidance to all executive branch agencies and served as the principal spokesperson for government-wide acquisition initiatives. Additionally, he managed the activities of the Cost Accounting Standards Board, the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, which has statutory authority to promulgate the government’s procurement regulations.
Before joining OFPP, Burton spent over 20 years as a senior acquisition attorney with the Department of Defense (DOD). At the Defense Contract Management Agency, he worked closely with the Defense Contract Audit Agency and negotiated resolutions to high-profile contract cost disputes with major defense contractors. Earlier in his DOD career, he served as an associate general counsel at the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). He also served as counsel to the DLA’s suspension and debarment official and managed the DLA’s fraud remedies program, working with the Department of Justice to coordinate appropriate remedies in major procurement fraud cases.
Burton is a Fellow of the National Contract Management Association and the National Academy of Public Administration. He serves on the Advisory Board of the George Mason University Baroni Center for Government Contracting and serves as Director at the Procurement Round Table. He is also a member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Public Contract Law and was a member of the section’s governing council.
Burton is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and the College of William and Mary.
