Our Federal Government Contracts practice provides comprehensive counsel to clients throughout the procurement process. As part of that guidance, we help clients avoid bid protest risks and protect their ability to win and/or maintain federal contract awards when pursuing or defending bid protests before all manner of federal agencies, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC).

Securing contract awards is the lifeblood of a thriving government contractor's business. Approximately 2,000 protests were filed at GAO in each of the last five years, with generally more than half of those protests being sustained or resulting in corrective action. The number of protests filed at COFC has likewise risen over the past five years. As protests are a way of life in government contracting, contractors should prepare for these challenges as part of their overall business strategy on every federal procurement. When a contractor believes a federal procurement is being handled arbitrarily, or when its contract award is challenged, it needs experienced attorneys who act quickly and decisively to protect its interests.

We have successfully litigated hundreds of federal bid protests, including high-stakes challenges involving competitions and contract awards for multibillion-dollar procurements over the past three decades at the agency level, GAO and COFC. We have litigated protests involving dozens of federal agencies seeking the full spectrum of services and products, including IT, architect – engineering, construction, consulting, maintenance, and multiple other complex services, and products including basic supplies to multibillion-dollar naval ships, satellites and IT systems. We understand the procurement and protest processes from start to finish and know what it takes to succeed and win protests. We have deep protest knowledge and multiple attorneys with top secret security clearances capable of litigating classified bid protests.

Bid Protest Successes

• Obtained corrective action in battle management system award.  Assisted defense aerospace protester in securing corrective action in procurement involving the development of a highly mobile, integrated battlefield command and control system with an estimated cost of $300 million. The protest involved agency failures to reasonably evaluate organizational conflicts of interest, cost issues and several aspects of the technical proposals.

• Successfully defended protest of the Department of Defense’s managed health care services contract. Represented the awardee in maintaining award of a $65 billion DoD managed health care contract providing health care services to active-duty military service members and dependents across the western United States.

• Successfully defended satellite cargo procurements. Defended defense contractor’s award for satellite procurement against a multipronged attack by disappointed offeror challenging the NASA contract. Rebutted attacks on the client’s cost and technical proposals, as well as an alleged appearance of impropriety based on an agency official’s former employment with the awardee.

• Successfully defended protest of U.S. Naval Facilities Engineer Command Pacific contract. Intervened in and defeated protest at GAO challenging the presumptive award, to a large engineering company, of a $20 million Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC) for Architect/Engineering services for the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineer Command Pacific (NAVFAC Pacific).

• Prevailed in a GAO bid protest concerning environmental remediation services. Successfully demonstrated that an agency’s source selection committee failed to follow the solicitation’s best value criteria on an IDIQ MATOC for environmental remediation services, providing our client an opportunity to compete for contracts in excess of $500 million.

• Prevailed in lock and dam project in Pennsylvania. Prevailed on two bid protests against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in connection with a lock and dam project in Pennsylvania. Our client was ultimately awarded the contract because of the protests, and GAO awarded our client attorneys’ fees.

• Successfully protested award concerning military bases throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Represented a contractor protesting an award at GAO concerning a contract worth $190 million for various construction activities at military facilities in Saudi Arabia. The agency voluntarily took corrective action and resolved the challenge in a manner benefiting our client.

• Successfully protested award involving U.S. Embassy construction project in Moscow. Represented and prevailed in a $156 million bid protest on behalf of a construction company for the construction of a new U.S. Embassy Annex in Moscow.

• Successfully challenged award of security contract for 167 Washington DC public schools. Prevailed in a bid protest against DC Schools before the District of Columbia Contract Appeals Board by demonstrating the district’s evaluation was arbitrary and unreasonable.