Bid Protests - How to Win or Keep Contracts

Bid Protests - How to Win or Keep Contracts

PRESENTERS: Joseph P. Hornyak and David S. Black  Bid protests are an important tool in the capture planning process. Bid protests can be used during proposal preparation or post-award to improve a contractor's chances of winning contracts. Before proposals are due, protests can be used to eliminate unfair provisions of a solicitation or compel an agency to revise requirements to give you a better chance to compete. After award, you can use the protest process to win contracts that you lost by uncovering defects in the Agency's evaluation, failures by a competitor to meet mandatory requirements, or failures by the Agency to tell you about deficiencies in your proposal that could have helped you win. If you won a contract that is protested, you can participate as an "intervenor" and help the Agency defend its decision to award the contract to you.

More and more, contractors are realizing that a "real" debriefing does not occur until their outside counsel have the opportunity to review the Agency's evaluation record after filing a protest. Without this level of transparency, offerors cannot know for certain whether they were treated fairly or whether the Agency followed the rules.

This program is designed to teach people involved in contract or program management or business development how to think strategically and tactically about bid protests. Our expert instructors will identify key issues and offer valuable tips and information regarding how to make effective use of the bid protest process to maximize business for your company.

Attendees will learn:

1. How to think through the decision of whether to protest and what factors you should consider;

2. How a protest of the solicitation (i.e., before proposals are due) can improve your competitive position;

3. The key deadlines and procedures involved in bid protests;

4. How to effectively work with your attorney on a post-award protest to look for key evaluation errors while minimizing your costs and impact on your customer; and

5. How to effectively intervene in a protest of a contract you've won to protect your award and build a positive working relationship with the customer.

The program will be presented by Joseph Hornyak and David Black of Holland & Knight LLP's Government Contracts Practice Group. Both Mr. Hornyak and Mr. Black have successfully litigated dozens of protests, representing both protesters and intervenors. They also have years of experience counseling contractors on whether filing a protest or intervening in one makes sense. Mr. Black is a Past-President of NCMA Tysons (2005-06).