Taft aerospace and defense attorneys Shawn Cheadle and John Gordon joined Matt Gjertsen, host and creator of the Leadership Launchpad podcast, for a conversation on the role of compliance for leaders in the aerospace and defense sectors. They shared their insights on the challenges companies face with building compliance frameworks, handling government contracts, navigating export regulations, and complying with OSHA requirements.

Listen to the podcast episode on Spotify HERE.

Cheadle is the co-leader of Taft’s Aerospace and Defense practice group and served 15 years as a general counsel of divisions within Lockheed Martin. He is experienced with a wide variety of areas within the aerospace industry, including corporate governance; mergers and acquisitions; international agreements; litigation, government and corporate investigations, e-Discovery, and records management; government and commercial contracts, satellite and missile defense programs; space law matters; supply chain and compliance – government, commercial, and construction contracts; launch and payload processing; and facility operations, and program and plant security.

Gordon focuses his practice on counseling emerging technology companies in the space and defense sectors, serving as both dependable legal counsel and a trusted and industry-savvy advisor to his clients. His general corporate and venture capital experience includes closing millions in fundraising rounds ranging from pre-seed debt investment to Series C rounds and beyond, drafting and negotiating millions in commercial contracts, forming and governing corporate structures, managing cap tables, and directly advising executives and boards of directors on various issues facing their businesses.