Jerry Howe

Jerald S. Howe, Jr. is executive vice president, general counsel, and board secretary of Leidos. He has responsibility for legal, contracts, and corporate governance, and administrative oversight of the ethics and compliance and internal audit functions. Howe joined Leidos in July 2017 after serving as partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (Fried Frank) where he was a member of the firm’s litigation, government contracts, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and aerospace and defense practices.

Before joining Fried Frank, Howe was the senior vice president and general counsel at TASC, a leading aerospace and defense company. In this position, he oversaw the company's legal affairs, corporate development and M&A, ethics and compliance programs, government relations, and security. Previously, he was owner and principal of InSequitur LLC, a consulting firm, and executive vice president of the Olive Group. Howe also served as senior vice president and general counsel of Veridian Corporation, a publicly traded company that served the intelligence community, military, and homeland defense agencies.

Before first transitioning to the corporate world, Howe was a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where his practice focused on space law and transactions, government contracts law with an emphasis on high-technology procurement, and federal court civil and appellate litigation. Previously, he served as law clerk to Judge George E. MacKinnon of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Howe received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review; his honors M.A. in modern history and economics from Oxford University, where he was a Sachs Scholar; and his A.B. from Princeton University and its School of Public and International Affairs.

Howe currently serves as a moderator for the Aspen Institute, co-founder and treasurer of No Labels, board member of the USO National Capital District, chair of the INSA Legal Affairs Roundtable, board member of the National Security Space Association, and board of advisors member for the Association of Corporate Counsel (National Capital Region) Leadership Academy. He is a past president of the Federal Circuit Bar Association and past chair of the Washington Space Business Roundtable.

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