Insights

Washington – June 4, 2026: Crowell & Moring earned 92 individual rankings for 81 attorneys, as well as 48 national and statewide practice area rankings, in the Chambers USA 2026 guide. The Chambers guide ranks the country’s top law firms and lawyers through in-depth research, client interviews, and feedback from attorneys at peer firms. 

Washington – February 24, 2026: Law360 has named Crowell & Moring’s Government Contracts Group a Practice Group of the Year for 2025. This is the 14thyear that the Group has earned this recognition.

The Rule of Two is a vital mechanism for ensuring that contracting officers satisfy the federal government’s statutory requirement that 23% of U.S. prime contracts be issued to small businesses. FAR 19.502-2(b) (19.104-1(a) of the RFO) requires that agencies set aside procurements for small businesses when there is a reasonable expectation that at least two responsible small businesses will submit offers at fair market prices.  

As discussed in more detail here, the U.S. Department of War (DoW) recently issued a memorandum (Memo 26-P-1023, dated July 13, 2026) directing the immediate suspension of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Phase II requirements (Level I and II self assessments are still permitted). Significantly, the memo directs that “all pending and future CMMC implementation milestones across DoW solicitations and contracts are held in abeyance until further notice.” Moreover, the DoW issued a memorandum on implementing these requirements (available here), directing agencies to issue amendments removing CMMC Level 2 and 3 requirements from active solicitations “as soon as practicable.” Contractors should monitor the government’s compliance with this requirement and should be prepared, if needed, to file a bid protest to protect their rights.

GAO’s recent sustain of the protest filed by emissary LLC provides valuable lessons for potential offerors with respect to organizational conflict of interest (OCI) mitigation plans (and their impact on technical approach), as well as their descriptions of key personnel qualifications.

Washington, D.C.-based Government Contacts Group partner, Peter Eyre, talks to Law360 regarding a final rule that will tighten restrictions on human trafficking in government contracting. Under its requirements, all contractors must disclose working conditions to employees, are barred from confiscating passports or other immigration documents, must ensure that workers aren't being charged any recruitment fees, and must provide the worker with return transportation for non-nationals. "I think another big question is: 'Who pays for this?'" Eyre said. "There are some very specific obligations, both the compliance plan ... and others. But who is going to pay for that?"

The firm's Government Contracts Group is featured for earning Law360's "Government Contracts Group of the Year Award," highlighting the Group as a widely heralded industry go-to and noting the firm's recent wins for Lockheed Martin Corp. and BAE Systems. Washington, D.C.-based Government Contract Group co-chairs, Angela B. Styles and Daniel R. Forman, discuss with Law360 the background of the Group and the deep bench of experienced attorneys from associates to partners which sets the Group apart from others. "We have folks on our legal team who are former military personnel, former engineers and software developers, and in addition to being at the top of their game on the legal side, they can speak multiple languages and talk to both general counsel and engineers, and that's an important facet of our practice," Forman states. Styles reiterates, "We're continually able to serve clients with the right lawyer, right experience, [and] right skill set."

This workshop will explain the key advance-planning, decision-making, litigation, and litigation avoidance practice pointers for bid protests before an agency, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. 

As 2023 rolls in, what changes can government contractors expect? What will be the focus of the US Government? How should contractors prepare?

Please click here for a copy of the presentation. Will it be more of the same for government contractors in 2016 -- increased oversight, intense competition, new regulations, and consolidation? Join the Crowell & Moring team on Thursday, January 14 at 1:00 pm Eastern to find out. Our attorneys will discuss likely trends for the coming year on a variety of topics including cost, commercial items, update on Executive Orders, investigations, compliance, suspension/debarment, GSA and VA schedules, mergers & acquisitions, small business, procurement fraud and so much more.

A one-day webcast featuring analyses and updates of FY15’s most important developments in government contracting, and the outlook for FY16.

In Aim for AdVantage, LLC, GAO dismissed a protest as a sanction after finding that the protester had materially misrepresented the facts underlying its challenge to the rejection of its proposal. The protester claimed it had spent two hours trying to submit its proposal through the agency’s digital portal before the deadline, only to be thwarted by undisclosed system limitations.  But a forensic review of the protester’s account activity told a very different story – one in which the protester had not even attempted to access the portal until nearly an hour after the deadline had passed. GAO’s decision to dismiss the protest as a sanction for these misrepresentations serves as a stark warning: fabricating facts in a GAO protest may result in serious consequences.

The following is an installment in Crowell & Moring’s Bid Protest Sustain of the Month Series. In this series, Crowell’s Government Contracts Practice keeps you up to date with a summary of one of the most notable bid protest sustain decisions each month. Below, Crowell Consultant (and former GAO Bid Protest Hearing Officer) Cherie Owen discusses GAO’s decision in LJR Solutions, LLC, B-424487, Aug. 14, 2026, where GAO sustained a small business’s challenge to the National Institutes of Health’s decision not to set aside a procurement for small business concerns.

Crowell & Moring’s “All Things Protest” podcast keeps you up to date on major trends in bid protest litigation, key developments in high-profile cases, and best practices in state and federal procurement. In this episode, Crowell's Christian Curran, Zachary Schroeder, and Bryan Dewan discuss a recent Federal Circuit appeal on the Blue & Gold waiver rule, and a Court of Federal Claims protest about the "late is late" rule in the world of electronic proposal submissions.

In this episode, Crowell's Christian Curran, Zachary Schroeder, and Bryan Dewan cover the latest NDAA protest provision, GAO’s Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2025, and GAO’s sustain of a bid protest related to an impaired objectivity organizational conflict of interest (OCI). Crowell & Moring’s “All Things Protest” podcast keeps you up to date on major trends in bid protest litigation, key developments in high-profile cases, and best practices in state and federal procurement.

Crowell & Moring’s “All Things Protest” podcast keeps you up to date on major trends in bid protest litigation, key developments in high-profile cases, and best practices in state and federal procurement. In this episode, host Rob Sneckenberg highlights three protest trends in 2023—the Federal Circuit revisiting jurisdictional issues; the success and significance of protests in multiple-award procurements; and the potentially increasing importance of COFC protests—plus what to watch for in 2024.