Government Contracts Attorneys
Our government contracts attorneys provide the full range of government contracting counseling and litigation services to help clients achieve their business goals and remain in compliance with the complex laws and regulations that define working with the government.
We represent government contractors of all sizes, from enterprising start-ups to large, prime contractors and span virtually all industries – defense and aerospace, intelligence, information technology, professional services, health care and construction services. Our clients rely on our depth of legal knowledge, decades of experience and sound business judgment to counsel them throughout the life cycle of government procurement. We help clients with evaluation and response to solicitations, bid protests, requests for equitable adjustments, government claims and terminations, suspensions and debarments, and other forms of disputes and litigation. Our attorneys also help clients with teaming arrangements, strategic alliances, mentor-protege relationships, joint ventures and subcontracting, mergers and acquisitions and navigating the complex regulatory environment, including small business regulations, ethics advice, and compliance audits and plans.
In addition to their legal expertise, our attorneys – many of whom have experience as lawyers with our Armed Forces, as procurement officers or in other positions within the public sector—offer deep knowledge of how to work with government agencies, thereby helping them navigate with ease and confidence. Such expertise helps clients to prepare winning proposals and resolve disputes during performance of contracts without litigation. When necessary, this means protecting our clients’ interests through prosecuting or defending bid protests before the Government Accountability Office, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and the Small Business Administration Office of Hearings and Appeals. We also represent clients in prosecuting or defending disputes before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals and the FAA Office of Hearing Appeals.
Areas of Concentration
- Bid Protests
- Claims and Appeals
- Corporate Issues, Mergers & Acquisitions and Due Diligence
- Cost Accounting and Cost Allowability
- Data Rights and Protection of IP and Trade Secrets
- Employment Issues in Government Contracting
- Ethics and Compliance Programs
- Service Contract Act (SCA)
- Davis-Bacon Act and Related Acts (DBRA)
- Affirmative Action Plans
- Ethics Plans
- Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) Plans
- Personal Conflict of Interest (PCI) Plans
- Government Claims and Terminations
- Internal Investigations and False Claims Act
- Regulatory and Procurement Counseling
- Requests for Equitable Adjustment, Claims and Disputes Litigation
- Responding to Federal Solicitations
- Small Business Programs
- SBA 8(a) Business Development Program
- SBA HUBZone Program
- SBA Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB)
- SBA Women-Owned and Economically-Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB)
- U.S. Department of Transportation Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veteran-Owned and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned (VOSB) Businesses
- District of Columbia’s Small and Local Business Development’s certification program
- Maryland’s Minority/Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program
- Virginia’s Small, Women-owned, and Minority-owned Business (SWaM) certification program
- Suspension and Debarment
- Teaming Arrangements and Subcontracting
- Teaming Arrangements
- Subcontracts
- Strategic Alliances
- Joint Venture Agreements
- Mentor-Protégé Agreements
- Whistleblower Defense
Representative Matters
- Bid Protests, Claims & Controversies
- A team of OFP litigators successfully appealed and obtained a multi-million dollar settlement that fully compensated a government contracting client. The litigation followed a federal contracting officer’s decision to terminate for default a prime government contract held by the client. Attorneys in the firm’s government contracts and litigation practice groups appealed the default termination, seeking to reverse the decision of the contracting officer to a termination for convenience and collect damages not only for a convenience termination, but also for breach of contract and bad faith. After extensive discovery and on the eve of the two-week trial dedicated to the default termination, the government conceded and agreed to reverse the termination for default to a termination for convenience and pay the client’s damages. This not only saved the client the two-week trial in Florida and allowed it to recover its damages, but also resulted in the correction of past performance ratings that could hinder the client’s ability to win government contracts in the future.
- OFP successfully represented a government contractor in a GAO bid protest by convincing the procuring agency to take corrective action and award an additional contract to the client, despite the fact that the company previously had been excluded from the competition due to an alleged technical noncompliance with its proposal. The firm was even successful in getting the government to reimburse the client for fees incurred as a result of the protest. In another bid protest, OFP successfully represented a client before the GAO challenging the award of a $117 million contract by the Office of Personnel Management based on the agency’s failure to conduct a reasonable price realism analysis.
- The firm successfully defended a major DoD prime contractor against a group of former employees/qui tam relators in a lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act by convincing the District Court to dismiss their complaints based on a lack of specificity under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b). By obtaining dismissal of this suit before formal discovery began, the firm saved the client millions of dollars in potential liability for the alleged false claims and hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation expenses.
- OFP represents an international contracting company that provides mission readiness solutions for military fleets worldwide. Since the company’s formation more than 20 years ago, the firm has served as the company’s primary counsel, advising the organization on an array of legal issues and representing it in contract litigation in state and federal courts.
- A client lost a $75M contract for IT services and hardware to a company that was using a small business contractor as a front. We protested the size status of the awardee, and the SBA determined it was not small due to affiliation with a large business. The award was subsequently cancelled, and the contract awarded to our client — a legitimate small business.
- A client who discharged a mid-level manager faced false allegations of committing fraud under government contracts and threatened with a qui tam false claims law suit. We thoroughly investigated the allegations, established extensive facts refuting the false claims allegations and provided a complete report to the U.S. attorney. The threatened false claims suit was never filed.
- A client lost a multi-million dollar service contract it had been performing for five years due to bias on the part of government personnel. A GAO protest was sustained and the agency told to reevaluate the proposals and make a new award. When the agency tried to cancel the solicitation rather than comply, we filed a protest at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, were allowed to take discovery and prove the agency had no legitimate basis to cancel the solicitation. The court even issued an injunction prohibiting three government officials from further involvement in the reevaluation. We also sought and recovered 100% of the legal fees incurred by our client prosecuting the protest.
- A client providing intelligence training services to military special forces at a specially built facility had its contract terminated for convenience when the military activity moved from the Washington, D.C. area. Then, the government used our client’s proprietary information to duplicate a new training facility. We prosecuted a claim for the misappropriation of this proprietary information and negotiated a favorable settlement.
- A business providing services to federal agencies was excluded from a follow-on contract. After two GAO and two U.S. Court of Federal Claims protests, the client was awarded a new contract to provide services to federal civilian agencies under task orders for the next 15 years.
- Employment Counseling & Disputes
- The firm provides on-going employment law support for a government contractor with approximately 7,000 employees, who recently reached $1 billion in revenue. This support includes enforcing covenants not to compete against several senior managers and negotiating the peaceful departure of a manager with performance deficiencies who had engaged in protected activity. OFP also advises the client on compliance with family medical leave laws, disability accommodation, and anti-discrimination statutes.
- OFP employment attorneys successfully resolved a government contractor’s termination of an employee based outside of the continental United States who lodged a complaint under the U.S. Department of Defense’s whistleblower charges through negotiations under the DoD’s OIG ADR program for full release of claims, payment of less than two months’ pay, and no admission of liability.
- Business Transactions
- OFP represented a government contractor for over a decade through numerous challenges including the unexpected death of the founder, who was a service-disabled veteran, the subsequent discovery that the CFO had been embezzling from the company, and ultimately the sale through an auction process of the client to a private equity firm.
- The firm has represented an ESOP-owned corporation for seven years with respect to corporate governance (i.e., board of directors) matters regarding the ESOP. For example, OFP has advised the company on the following: amending the ESOP; advising when pass-through voting by ESOP participants must occur; and discharging the board’s fiduciary duties regarding the later issuance of equity securities.
- OFP represented a client to help structure a tax-free reorganization to formally separate into distinct legal entities its government contracting services from its commercial services.
- OFP provides on-going leasing needs for a fast-growing international technology government contractor with over 1,000 employees in more than 30 countries, including the lease of its headquarters and expansions, relocations and extensions thereof, and most other leasing needs nationally.
