Allen Barksdale Green

Allen Barksdale Green passed away peacefully at the age of 77 on January 10, 2025 at Georgetown Hospital in Washington, DC, surrounded by his family.

Allen was born on October 12, 1947, to Robert LaMoyne Green and Elizabeth ("Betty") Barksdale Green in Lakeland, Florida. He was close to his Grandfather, Drayton Barksdale, from whom he inherited a love of hot peppers and eccentric foods.

His family moved to Annandale, Virginia in 1958, when his father took a job as an expert on schemes and routing for the United States Postal Service in Washington, DC. He became a devotee of close-hand magic, putting on shows for the neighborhood, and frequenting Al's Magic Shop downtown whenever possible. It was also at this time that he fell in love with Washington Senators -- he would be overjoyed years later when the Nationals played their inaugural season at RFK stadium in 2004, and would eventually win the World Series in 2019.

He went to the University of Virginia from 1964-1969, where he was a member of the Sigma Fi fraternity, and supped on such delicacies as milk toast and twice fried doughnuts. In between college and law school, he taught school children in D.C., as well as in the town of Bird's Nest on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, where he unhappily learned how to shoot game. He also went through basic training in Missouri.

In 1972, Allen met his future wife of 52 years, Claire Gibson. They were married in 1973 and lived in Charlottesville, Virginia while he finished law school. He passed the Virginia bar in 1974, and soon began working at Sellers, Connor & Cuneo, a D.C. firm that practically established the modern practice of government contracts law. He brought in his first case to Gil Cuneo, because on an airplane he sat next to an African American businessman from Columbus, Ohio who the federal government had discriminated against. Over the next several years he leveraged his governmental contracts practice into a niche international arbitration career. His effect on that area of law is hard to overstate.

His work brought him frequently to Brussels, Geneva, Istanbul, Cairo, Riyadh, and later Athens. His most perhaps most gratified professional moment was a dinner in view of the Great Pyramid after a successful arbitration in the matter of Chamalloy Aeroservices v. The Arab Republic of Egypt. He became an expert in U.S. export controls and trade embargoes -- testifying before congress in 1992. In 2011, he published an important casebook about his field. He worked on all aspects of international government contracting, including USAID contracts and regulations.

In recent years Allen lived with Claire in their house in Georgetown, and taught law as an adjunct at G.W. and Georgetown University. He enjoyed relaxing in his back garden, walking down the street to Martin's, and playing the piano. He is survived by his wife Claire, and his sons Nat and Jamie.