Prospective clients often ask if you need an attorney to file a bid protest. No, a federal contractor is not required to have an attorney unless filing at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. A federal contractor does not need an attorney if filing at the GAO (Government Accountability Office) or if filing an agency-level protest. But, if a federal contractor doesn’t use an experienced government contracts attorney if filing at GAO, it’s usually not worth the effort or expense.
Why does a federal contractor need an attorney to file a bid protest? An experienced bid protest attorney knows the GAO’s rules of procedure and practice: how to file a bid protest; what must the protest say; when a bid protest can be filed; once filed, what is the protest schedule; and what are the parties’ responsibilities during a protest. Most importantly, an attorney can qualify to review the agency’s relevant evaluation documents that a federal contractor is not permitted to see. Although the attorney cannot share this information with his client, he can use this information to more effectively represent his client before the GAO.
An experienced bid protest attorney knows what protest grounds to raise and what protest grounds not to raise. He knows not to challenge an assessment of strengths and weaknesses; not to challenge the fairness of a solicitation after award; and not to raise a bias claim, thus saving his client from expending resources on a meritless claim.
An attorney will know how to make a legal argument when the situation raises a legal issue. The attorney will usually have access to a searchable database of cases for answering legal questions and viewing GAO’s discussion of past cases.
Finally, an attorney will know how to stop performance on the new contract while GAO resolves a pending protest. An experienced government contracts attorney will know the procedure to challenge an agency’s decision if it continues to perform the new contract.
For more information on filing a bid protest, contact MWL Partner Bill Welch.