Print PDF Public Contracting and Procurement
Our lawyers represent clients in connection with public funding, contracting issues, and related litigation at all levels of government and wherever our clients’ contractual obligations may take them. We advise clients that are involved in public contracting and publicly funded project work for federal, state, and local government customers and on projects that are located throughout the United States as well as overseas. Our public contracting practice frequently involves acquisition planning, pre-award controversies, protest litigation, and negotiation of prime contracts and subcontracts. In addition, we represent clients in performance and administrative matters and in connection with compliance controversies and enforcement matters.
Legislative Representation
The framework of federal and state procurement processes is established by statutes. Regulations promulgated by executive agencies then implement the statutory requirements and provide the mechanism that governs how contracts are awarded and federal and state funds are spent. New legislation also plays an important role by developing and funding policy initiatives in support of scientific and medical research and development, public safety and transportation projects, education initiatives, and other endeavors, all of which are then fulfilled through contract awards. Representation at the legislative stage often is critical to the contracting interests of businesses, universities, and non-profits, because legislation may create, expand, or derail contracting opportunities or increase the risks involved in performing public contract work. Our attorneys are skilled at providing representation and guidance at the legislative stage.
Procurement
Our procurement lawyers have worked with clients in times of expanding and shrinking federal and state budgets and currently are involved with a variety of defense conversion efforts and reconstruction projects throughout the United States and overseas. We assist clients in all aspects of defense and civilian agency contracting and subcontracting, including the following:
- Pre-Award Planning and Counseling - Our attorneys assist clients in evaluating contracts, grants, and other types of acquisition opportunities, announcements, solicitations, and requests. We also help our clients to understand solicitation requirements, terms, and conditions, and we assist them in developing policies and procedures to ensure timely compliance with these requirements. Finally, our lawyers negotiate and prepare teaming agreements, joint venture arrangements, intellectual property agreements and licenses, subcontracts, and all types of supporting agreements.
- Complex Project Financing - We regularly assist clients in analyzing complex financing issues encountered on projects involving cooperative funding from federal and private sources.
- Controversies - Our attorneys counsel clients on pre-proposal and pre-award contract controversies and represent them in any litigation that may result. We also advise clients as to post-award controversies, including protested award decisions, contract negotiations, performance controversies, claim appeals, administrative disputes, subcontractor problems, and the contract close-out process. We also help our clients address problems that often arise in connection with contract changes, delays, inspections, deliverables, cost and pricing controversies, audit inquiries, stop work and show cause notices, contract terminations, and close-out controversies.
- Litigation and Appeals - We represent clients in all types of litigation and alternative dispute resolution proceedings relating to federally funded contracts. Our work in this area includes representation before the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, and the various other federal trial and appellate courts.
- Administrative Proceedings - We advise clients in administrative proceedings before agency contracting officers in relation to claims, requests for equitable adjustment, and routine matters of contract interpretation. We represent clients at all stages of their involvement in the public contracting process, including their initial entry into the public marketplace, their continued development in that marketplace, and, in some instances, their orderly exit from that marketplace.
- Socio-Economic Programs and Policies - We counsel clients on all types of issues relating to socio-economic programs and policies related to government contracting, especially those that relate to special set-asides for small businesses, veteran-owned small businesses, disabled veteran-owned small businesses, 8(a) businesses, women-owned businesses, and the other programs established by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
- Enforcement and Compliance - We assist clients in conducting internal investigations and inquiries relating to allegations of unethical or illegal conduct by employees, consultants, customers, or other individuals who may be involved in the clients' operations. Our firm also represents clients in connection with federal investigations precipitated by adverse audit findings, qui tam lawsuits, and allegations of fraud, and defends clients who are named in qui tam lawsuits.
- Suspension and Debarment Proceedings - We assist and represent clients, including corporations, shareholders, officers, directors, and employees, in connection with suspension and debarment proceedings before various federal and state administrative bodies.
- Corporate Transactions - Our attorneys assist clients in reviewing government contract portfolios during the course of due diligence work in support of corporate mergers, acquisitions, asset purchases, loan transactions, capital lease financing, and public/private cooperative ventures.
Information and Technology
Federal and state agencies increasingly are relying on information and technology to meet their needs and to deliver services in a more efficient, cost-effective manner. As a result, public contracting is becoming more focused on intellectual property such as software, manufacturing processes, designs, engineering or medical studies, raw data, analyzed data, and all manner of trade secrets. Public agencies routinely fund the development of intellectual property and, by regulation, the government is entitled to receive certain rights to use and to allow others to use the information covered by those rights. At the same time, businesses want to retain ownership of the data and information that they develop under a contract and limit the scope of rights to be conferred upon the government. Our attorneys regularly advise clients on how best to address the tension that inherently exists whenever there is an allocation of data rights between the government and its prime contractors and their subcontractors.
Agency Familiarity
We have represented our clients in public contracting matters before virtually every federal agency and many state agencies, including the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Prisons, among many others. Our representative engagements include the following:
- Advising clients before the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers on various reconstruction projects throughout the South and in Afghanistan, Oman, and other countries in the Middle East
- Representing clients before the Export – Import Bank of the United States with respect to export credit insurance, loan guarantees, and structured finance arrangements
- Counseling clients before the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in connection with the use of electronic data interchange in support of federal procurement practices as implemented by various federal agencies
- Representing clients before the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. General Services Administration, and various other agencies in connection with procurement of information technology software, services, and equipment
