Attorneys in Taft’s Government Contracts practice use their depth and breadth of knowledge and experience with the government contract procurement process (at the local, state, federal and international levels) to provide a full-service practice to Fortune 100 companies, as well as entrepreneurial, privately-held, small business, non-profit and governmental clients. We represent clients in a variety of industries, including aerospace, defense, information technology, health care, professional services, construction and research and development.
We represent clients in all aspects of government contracting, from the procurement process through contract administration and everything in between. Taft has extensive experience handling complex issues such as:
- Technical data rights and intellectual property issues.
- Terminations.
- Commercial items.
- Country of origin determinations.
- Buy American Act, Trade Agreements Act and Berry Amendment issues.
- Federal Supply Schedule issues.
- Conducting procurement compliance audits.
- Mandatory disclosures of all types of issues.
- Defending civil/criminal allegations of False Claims or whistleblower suits.
- Representation of contractors in suspension and debarment proceedings.
- Construction claims work.
- Matters involving international or cross-cultural concerns, e.g., USAID, ACOE and other OCONUS procurements.
Specifically, our Government Contracts practice offers a variety of services, including:
- Bid Protests: Handling pre-award administrative and court actions to challenge a contract award to another bidder, e.g., protests or bid protest mediations before the Government Accountability Office (formerly the General Accounting Acquisition Office or GAO), the Court of Federal Claims, within state agencies or state courts.
- Federal Regulations (FAR) and Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) Compliance Counseling: Counseling clients in the application of the various laws affecting the federal procurement process, such as socioeconomic compliance requirements, small and minority business issues, e.g., HUB Zone and SDVOB, and Freedom of Information Act requests; counseling clients in Berry Amendment fabric and specialty metals compliance issues.
- Procurement Compliance Audits and Business Program Analysis: Assisting clients in developing, maintaining and auditing compliance programs and in demonstrating their corporate responsibility to government procurement officials.
- Contract Drafting and Analysis: Preparing and negotiating teaming agreements, data rights agreements, confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements, licenses and subcontracts and providing a risk analysis of terms and conditions of government contracts, grants, cooperative agreements and other types of federal agreements.
- Contractor Dispute Resolution: Responding to breach of contract claims and resolving disputes between prime and subcontractors under government contracts.
- Claim Preparation: Resolving termination disputes and preparation of termination for convenience settlement proposals and analyzing, preparing, and resolving contract issues or claims, including defective pricing claims under the Truth in Negotiations Act, before the contracting officer or subsequently litigating them before the Court of Federal Claims or the applicable Boards of Contract Appeal.
- Government Investigation Representation: Representing clients during government civil and criminal investigations related to the False Claims Act, False Statement Act, etc., whether initiated by the government or qui tam relator, such as internal corporate investigations, assessments as to whether “credible evidence” of a fraud mandates disclosure, and the related issue of suspension and debarment.
- Attorneys in Taft’s Government Contracts practice are both counselors and litigators. We continuously advise our clients on the range of issues related to or resulting from doing business with the government. We routinely provide e-Bulletins about recent developments in the area of government contracts to existing clients and friends of the firm. E-Bulletins are also posted here.
- Our attorneys litigate, when necessary, to assist clients in defending contract awards, challenging contract awards before agencies, the Court of Federal Claims, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and in state courts. We also represent clients in contract performance disputes in the courts and before the various boards of contract appeal where we have prepared, negotiated and successfully resolved high dollar claims.
