Federal, State, and Local Bid Protests: The Forums, Rules, and Remedies

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:

1. Address the federal bid protest process, including debriefings, the availability of stays of contract performance, outcomes, remedies, corrective actions, and recourse
2. Identify, at the federal level, the choice of forums, the scope of jurisdiction of those forums, the filing deadlines, important procedural rules, potential grounds of protest, and potential remedies, and rights of appeal
3. Review critical legislative developments that have, and likely will, impact the federal bid protest process, including the 2017 NDAA, the 2018 NDAA, and the Rand Report
4. Provide an overview and selected examples of state and local bid protest processes, culminating in the key takeaway that each state and local system is unique and one must learn and follow the rules for the applicable jurisdiction and forum