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'No Prejudice' Response to Protest of Past Performance Evaluation Tantamount to Concession of Error

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 07.31.14

In a recent decision, GAO sustained Native Resource Dev. Co.'s protest that its past performance should have been rated Outstanding given the undisputed record of the agency's superlative written findings. GAO held that the agency's response, which was solely that if the protester's past performance merited a higher rating, then so did the awardee's, was "tantamount to a concession" that it could not defend its assignment of a Satisfactory rating and dismissed the agency's findings about the essential equivalency of protester's and awardee's past performance as merely a post hoc argument to be given little weight.


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Client Alert | 2 min read | 06.15.26

Kansas Federal Court Applies “Selective Enforcement” Theory to Reject DTSA Claim

A Kansas federal court held that inconsistent enforcement of trade secret rights can defeat a claim under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). In Edelman Financial Engines, LLC v. Mariner Wealth Advisors LLC, No. 2:23-cv-02515-HLT (D. Kan. June 5, 2026), the court applied a selective enforcement theory, holding that when a company does not consistently pursue legal remedies against similarly situated former employees, that inconsistency can be affirmative evidence that it failed to protect its trade secrets. While the selective enforcement theory has appeared in academic hypothetical discussions, the decision appears to be one of the clearest judicial applications of a “selective enforcement” theory in a trade secret case....