Our Team
Our partners and senior staff are attorneys and possess 20 or more years of experience as trainers, program managers, contract administrators, and litigators. We offer the rare blend of legal expertise and practical federal contracting experience necessary to assist government and industry clients in navigating the complex maze of federal rules and regulations and implementing federal market solutions that are timely, efficient, and legally effective.
We've seen the problems. We've litigated the cases. We know the outcomes. We provide customized solutions—not legal opinions.
Barbara S. Kinosky, President
Barbara S. Kinosky, Esq. is the President of Centre Consulting, Inc. Centre is a professional services firm specializing in all aspects of acquisition planning and support, training and GSA/VA Supply Schedules support. She has over twenty years of experience in federal government contracts. Prior to starting Centre, she was the head of a government contracts practice group at a major law firm.
Barbara is a frequent author and lecturer. She testified before Congressman Davis’ 1423 Acquisition Reform Panel on the efficacy of performance based contracting. She was quoted numerous times in the Final Report. She has spoken at the Professional Services Expo, the Greater Washington Business Summit, the NCMA World Congress and the Annual SBA National Conference, and the NIH Annual Contracting Symposium. She was featured at the Federal Health Care Acquisition Conference. Barbara was Vice Chair of the Public Contracts and Procurement Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Administrative Law. She was the editor of the award winning Federal Bar Association Government Contracts Newsletter for five years and served on the panel of experts of the Washington Business Journal, where she is a guest columnist. Barbara is also an experienced arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association. She sits on the AAA Large Complex Case Panel.
Through Centre’s Federal Contracting Institute, Barbara has taught hundreds of government and contractor employees on a wide variety of subjects. She is the co-author of Boot Camp for GSA Contracts and has taught numerous courses on all aspects of federal government contracting. Barbara has consulted to both Fortune 500 companies and federal government agencies on a wide variety of topics including performance based contracting, acquisition planning, and FAR compliance issues.
Barbara is a member of the Virginia and District of Columbia bars. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia, the U.S. Court of Appeals, the District of Columbia Circuit and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. A 1975 graduate from Florida State University, Barbara received her law degree from George Mason University, where she was the Associate Editor of the Law Review.
James S. Phillips, Executive Vice President
James S. (Jim) Phillips, Esq. is the Executive Vice President of Centre Consulting, a firm specializing in federal acquisition and federal market consulting and training services. Mr. Phillips manages Centre’s consulting services division where he regularly provides critical advice to government and industry clients on federal market and federal compliance issues. Jim and the team of consultants that he manages are highly accomplished in performing a wide spectrum of federal market support services, including federal market research, federal market analysis, competitive proposal development and support services, GSA and VA FSS contract acquisition services and teaming and partnering strategic development services. He and his team also assist firm clients effectively respond to compliance challenges under their federal contracts by providing contract and program management support services and contract audit support services. He and his team are also accomplished at developing and/or assessing the effectiveness of compliance systems for federal contracts. Jim is also a frequent lecturer and instructor for Centre’s Federal Contracting Institute, for whom he has authored and presents numerous courses including Boot Camp for GSA Contracting, Essentials of GSA Compliance, Intellectual Property Rights under Government Contracts, and Federal Contracting Basics.
Some of his recent accomplishments include:
- Chair of the GSA Working Group of the Contract Service Association’s 2005 Government–Industry Task Force on Service Contracting, resulting in detailed recommendations for reforms to the Section 1423 Acquisition Advisory Panel.
- Presenter of ten separate presentations at the past four NCMA World Congress Conferences on Developments under T&M and IDIQ Contracts, Developments in GSA Schedule Contracting, Managing Contract Scope, The Seven Steps for Anticipating and Negating Bid Protests, and Introduction to Federal Contracting Law.
- Centre Team Leader in a multi-year effort to enable a large Blue Cross Blue Shield entity to establish an effective federal contracts marketing and compliance organization capable of competing for and performing extremely large dollar contracts.
- Centre Team Leader on scores of GSA and VA Schedule acquisition and compliance projects including numerous successful contract renewals of large dollar schedule contracts that were subject to audit by the GSA and VA Office of Inspector General.
Jim began his career as a federal contracts attorney and has considerable experience addressing legal issues arising under federal contracts. He received his law degree in 1982 from The George Washington University.
Brian C. Caney, Senior Associate Attorney
Brian Caney is a senior associate attorney at Centre Law Group, LLC. Since joining Centre in 2005, his practice has focused on federal procurement law and litigation, as well as GSA schedule consulting, small business matters, and various compliance issues. Brian has represented government contractors before many government contract tribunals, including the Government Accountability Office, the United States Court of Federal Claims, and the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals. As an experienced federal procurement attorney and consultant, Mr. Caney co-writes FCI’s Annual Review course book each year and co-authored FCI’s Subcontracting Issues—From Both the Prime and the Subcontractors’ Perspective with Ms. Kinosky and Mr. Phillips. In addition, Brian has prepared courseware for and taught many of FCI’s other courses, including Federal Contracting Basics, Advanced Issues in Federal Contracting, and Mastering GSA/VA Audits. He has also written articles for NCMA’s Small Business Contracting electronic magazine and other federal contracting publications.
Brian received his law degree, cum laude, from Seton Hall University School of Law, where he was an Articles Editor for the Law Review. He is also an honors graduate of Saint Joseph's University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations. Brian is admitted to the bars of Maryland and Connecticut, is licensed to practice before the United States Court of Federal Claims, and is an active member of the National Contract Management Assocation and the American Bar Association's Section of Public Contract Law.
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