Like any other business or enterprise, the government will contract with a variety of parties to obtain goods and services. Government procurement and acquisition is the process that different government agencies use to enter into these contracts. The acquisition process is highly competitive, often drawing multiple contract bidders to the table. In evaluating bids and ultimately awarding the contract, agencies are required to comply with numerous acquisition rules and regulations. When a contractor believes that the agency may have failed to act in accordance with those regulations, that contractor can bring what is known as a bid protest to challenge the agency’s decision.
In this course, attorneys Raymond Monroe, Katherine Burrows, and Nathanael Hartland address the rules and regulations applicable to the federal, state, and local bid protest process. This course draws on their experiences, as well as federal, state, and local regulations and current case law, to outline the required procedures and best practices to argue successful bid protests.
Learning Objectives:
Ray Monroe, a principal at Miles & Stockbridge, has 30+ years of experience representing national and multi-national businesses and quasi-public entities on litigation, ADR, and counseling matters in a broad array of industries from aerospace to utilities relating to public procurement and grants. His experience includes bid protests; claims; compliance programs; corporate governance; cybersecurity; disaster response and hazard mitigation grants; ESPCs; False Claims Act; FCPA; internal and external investigations; mandatory disclosures; public-private partnerships; Public Law 85-804 indemnification; and suspension and debarment.
Ray also counsels clients regarding the implementation of policy and procurement initiatives at the international, federal, state, and local levels. He is involved with cloud computing, disaster response, green technology, High Speed Rail, infrastructure improvement, and renewable energy initiatives. In addition, he assists both private and public clients in designing procurement policies and procedures and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms; he represents clients in ADR proceedings; and he has participated in arbitrations as a party arbitrator.
Before joining Miles & Stockbridge, Ray was a Partner in the Government Contracts Group of Crowell & Moring. Ray received his law degree from Duke University School of Law in 1980, with distinction, where he served as Executive Editor of the Duke Law Journal. Ray received his undergraduate degree from Hobart College in 1977, Phi Beta Kappa, where he majored in physics and history. Following law school graduation, Ray clerked for Justice Stewart G. Pollock of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Ray is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and New Jersey.
Katie Burrows, counsel with Miles & Stockbridge, is a government contracts lawyer who represents clients in bid protests before state and federal agencies, the Government Accountability Office, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Katie also assists clients in a variety of other litigation forums including state courts, federal district courts, and federal boards of contract appeals in matters involving contract claims, disputes between subcontractors and prime contractors, and qui tam suits under the Civil False Claims Act.
Katie received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her JD from the University of Baltimore, magna cum laude. Katie has taught as an adjunct professor at Anne Arundel Community College’s Legal Studies Institute.
Katie is also the co-founder of The Burrows-Hill Foundation to Fight Friedreich’s Ataxia.
Nathanael (“Nathan”) Hartland, a Partner at Nelson Mullins, counsels public and private entities on matters involving government contracts, intellectual property and licensing, U.S. trade laws, regulatory compliance, and other matters relating to domestic and international commerce. Nathan has assisted government contractors and grantees, and their subcontractors and lenders, in a wide variety of transactions and disputes involving: (a) licensing and developing technology for military, intelligence, and civilian agencies; (b) responding to agency and prime contractor solicitations; (b) negotiating NDAs, teaming agreements, and subcontracts; (c) litigating bid protests and contract disputes; (d) conducting mergers and acquisitions due diligence, and (e) complying with government ethics rules, and other requirements.
Nathan received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2004, where he served as an Associate and Senior Editor of the Journal of International Economic Law. Nathan received his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1999, Phi Beta Kappa.
The discussion on bases for challenges was useful for me as a government attorney. I took it as a list of practices to avoid.
Nice overview of huge area of law. While limited in scope and time, it was still very informative.
Terrific team and materials.