Insights

Washington – February 22, 2019: Crowell & Moring LLP is pleased to announce that its Government Contracts Group has been recognized as one of Law360’s “Practice Groups of the Year” for government contracts. This is the ninth consecutive year that the group has earned this honor.

Washington, D.C., May 5, 2016: Crowell & Moring represented OpenText, the largest software company in Canada and a global leader in Enterprise Information Management, in its acquisition of ANXe Business Corp. (ANX). ANX is a leading provider of cloud-based information exchange services to the US Automotive and Healthcare industries.

Washington, D.C. – January 9, 2015: Crowell & Moring LLP is pleased to announce that its Government Contracts Group has been named to Law360's "Practice Groups of the Year" listing for Government Contracts for the fifth straight year. For this listing, Law360 recognizes "firms that came through for their clients in 2014, sealing the big deals and winning the high-stakes suits."

In a decision released publicly on March 31, 2017, the Court of Federal Claims denied a protest challenging a competitive range determination that left AT&T, represented by C&M, as the last remaining contender to win a 25-year contract to build and operate a nationwide public safety broadband network. The network will consolidate public safety use of the radio spectrum and prioritize first responders in times of crisis, while granting AT&T claim over large amounts of unused spectrum, as well as $6.5 billion for construction costs. The Court held, among other things, that the relatively extensive exchanges between the offerors and the agency before the competitive range determination was made were “communications,” not “discussions,” under the FAR because the agency neither intended to accept, nor permitted, proposal revisions. The Court also held that the government reasonably rejected the protester’s proposal where it coupled unacceptable financial risk with a questionable business model.

In U.S. ex rel. King v. The University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston, a federal court considered whether The University of Texas Health Science Center–Houston was subject to liability under the qui tam provisions of the federal civil False Claims Act, based on a former employee's allegations that the hospital had defrauded the federal government by covering up misconduct related to federal research grants, and retaliated against the employee for reporting the misconduct. Applying the "arm-of-the-state" test (previously discussed here), the court held that the university hospital was a state entity -- and thus, was not a "person" subject to suit under the FCA -- and likewise held that employee's FCA retaliation claim was barred by sovereign immunity, providing a victory in the latest round of FCA scrutiny impacting higher ed institutions (discussed here and here).

In Nexant, Inc (Jan. 30, 2013), GAO sustained the protest of Nexant, Inc., represented by Crowell & Moring, to the award of a clean energy consulting contract by USAID, finding that USAID engaged in misleading discussions, based its evaluation on a flawed methodology that led to numerous unreasonable evaluation conclusions, and did not reasonably explain its basis for choosing the awardee's higher cost proposal. While GAO ultimately declined to rule on the issue of what weight it should afford to a source selection decision document (SSDD) drafted after both contract award and the filing of a protest, it did note that there is "a reasonable concern" whether such an after-the-fact SSDD can accurately represent the fair and considered judgment of the agency.

Crowell & Moring's Ounce of Prevention Seminar, hosted by the firm's Government Contracts Group, is featured in a BNA article discussing compliance measures for federal contractors. George Washington University law professor Steven Schooner, who spoke at the conference, discussed key compliance cases to highlight the importance of risk avoidance for contractors.

This forum is geared toward foreign embassies, trade missions, commercial attaches, and executives of foreign companies that want to navigate a path to winning federal contracts. The program includes experts in federal contracting and international trade, a panel discussion, and a Q&A session to address questions from the audience.

Government contracts in any country have always served as a lucrative source of income for private firms and this could not be truer for both contractors to the U.S. and Indian Government.  However, because of business, cultural and distance challenges, government contractors have traditionally operated in their own country.  This is no longer the case and recent trends in globalization have opened up significant opportunities for a company based in one country to work for the Government of another country.  These cross border ventures are not without risks and both Indian and U.S. companies should be fully aware of the challenges they will face as a foreign government contractors.

Crowell & Moring and PricewaterhouseCoopers invite you to attend two government contracting seminars on October 15, 2009 addressing current topics critical to every government contractor. The morning seminar will cover American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding opportunities, incentives, and oversight rules as well as the recent changes to the False Claims Act. The afternoon seminar will address the fundamentals of surviving a GSA Schedule audit. You can choose to attend one or both seminars. There is no fee to attend.