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Agency's "Mail Storm" Excuses Late Proposal

Client Alert | 1 min read | 03.31.11

Moving beyond faxes into the computer age, the Court of Federal Claims in Watterson Constr. Co. v. U.S. (Mar. 29, 2011) found that a contractor's late proposal should be excused when the delay was caused solely by a "mail storm" at the agency which overloaded and slowed down its servers. Judge Braden found that the late proposal, received by the contracting officer 4 minutes after the deadline, is excused because the proposal was on time as it had been received by the agency's servers timely; even if it had been late, the FAR's "government control" exception applied; and, in any event, the "mail storm" was an "emergency or unanticipated event" which entitled the contractor to a 1-day extension under the FAR.

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Client Alert | 7 min read | 10.22.26

Africa, MENA, and the Arbitration Act 2025: LCIA’s Latest Report

The LCIA's 2025 Annual Casework Report contains a finding that should command the attention of any business with commercial exposure to Africa or the Middle East. Participation from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) rose to almost 15% of the LCIA's caseload in 2025, and the UAE alone is now the third most represented jurisdiction globally, overtaking every non-Anglophone jurisdiction in the world.[1] That shift did not happen in isolation. It coincided with the entry into force of the Arbitration Act 2025 (the 2025 Act) — the most significant reform of English arbitration law in a generation — and a dramatic surge in parties deploying the LCIA's procedural toolkit more aggressively than ever before.[2]...