Louis Chiarella
Overview
Government contractors of all sizes can count on Lou Chiarella to be both a trusted counselor and zealous advocate. With more than 30 years of experience in all aspects of government contracting, Lou has the unique ability to recognize the legal issue immediately at hand and to understand the long game.
Career & Education
- Government Accountability Office
Deputy Assistant General Counsel, Procurement Law, 2022
Senior Attorney, Procurement Law, 2001 – 2021
Judge, GAO Contract Appeals Board, 2008 – 2022 - U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps
Chief Counsel, Army Futures Command Task Force, 2017 – 2018
Assistant to the General Counsel, Army General Counsel’s Office, 2016 – 2017
Reserve Chief Trial Attorney, Army Contract and Fiscal Law Division, 2013 – 2016
Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff (Source Selection Board Chairman), Army Intelligence and Security Command, 2011
Appellate Military Judge, Army Court of Criminal Appeals, 2007 – 2010
Professor of Contract and Fiscal Law, Army JAG School, 1999 – 2001, 2001 – 2006
Reserve Chief Trial Attorney, Army Contract and Fiscal Law Division, 2013 – 2016
Chief of Criminal Law, 1998 – 1999
Chief of Administrative and Civil Law, 1997 – 1998
Trial Attorney, Army Contract Appeals Division, 1992 – 1996
Special Assistant United States Attorney, US Attorney’s Office (Western District of Kentucky), 1989 – 1992
Legal Assistance Attorney, 1988 – 1989
- Government Accountability Office
- University of Notre Dame, B.A., cum laude, 1985
- State University of New York, J.D., cum laude, 1988
- Catholic University of America, M.A., cum laude, 1996
- The Army Judge Advocate General’s School, LL.M., 1997
- New York
- District of Columbia
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Ohio (Inactive)
Professional Activities and Memberships
- Adjunct Professor of Law, George Washington University School of Law, Government Procurement Law Program (2022 to Present): Teaches a range of government contract law courses, at both the JD and LLM levels, as part of the world’s preeminent government contracts law program.
Lou's Insights
Event | 01.25.24
The GAO Bid Protest Process: Revealed, Uncut, and Uncensored
Have you ever wanted candid answers about how the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) works and decides bid protests? As the only law firm with three former GAO bid protest hearing officers, who have a combined 44 years of experience deciding bid protests, Crowell invites you to an in-person roundtable discussion featuring behind-the-scenes insight and tips.
Press Coverage | 03.15.23
Representative Matters
- GAO Bid Protests Adjudicated
- Spatial Front, Inc., B-420921.2, B-420921.3 (Dec. 21, 2022) – Protest of a $59 million Department of Agriculture task order for IT services sustained where the agency unreasonably determined the labor categories quoted by the awardee to perform the requirements were within the scope of the awardee’s Federal Supply Schedule contract.
- American Electronics, Inc., B-421021 et al. (Dec. 5, 2022) – Protest of a $185 million Department of the Navy contract for F-35 support services denied where the agency’s technical, past performance, and cost realism evaluations of the protester were reasonable.
- Calhoun International, LLC, B-421047 (Nov. 14, 2022) – Protest of a $51 million task order by the Department of the Army for human intelligence operations support services denied where the protester failed to establish that it was competitively prejudiced by the alleged technical evaluation error.
- Vigor Marine LLC, B-420955.2 (Oct. 31, 2022) – Protest challenging, as unduly restrictive of competition, the terms of a solicitation issued by the Department of the Navy for dry-dock repair and alteration services dismissed as untimely and one that did not qualify for review under GAO’s significant issue exception.
- Tech Marine Business, Inc., B-420872 et al. (Oct. 14, 2022) – Protest of a $38 million Department of the Navy task order for professional and engineering support services sustained where the agency’s evaluation documentation was inadequate to support the reasonableness of its technical evaluation.
- WHR Group, Inc., B-420776, B-420776.2 (Aug. 30, 2022) – Protest of blanket purchase agreements for FBI employee relocation services sustained where the agency failed to adequately document the protester’s technical evaluation rating, and where the best-value tradeoff improperly increased the relative importance of price and decreased the relative importance of the non-price factors from that set forth in the solicitation.
- Wolverine Tube Inc., B-418339.4, B-418339.5 (July 26, 2022) – Protest of a $173 million Department of the Air Force contract for next generation cargo pallets denied where the challenge to the evaluation of the awardee’s price failed to state a valid basis of protest, and where the discussions with the protester were reasonable and without prejudice.
- Worldwide Language Resources, Inc., B-418767.5 (July 12, 2022) – Protest of a $186 million Department of the Army task order for linguist support services denied where the agency’s technical evaluation of the protester was reasonable and consistent with the solicitation’s stated evaluation criteria.
- PavCon, LLC, B-420640 (July 5, 2022) – Protest of a decision by the Department of the Air Force not to fund offeror’s proposal under a commercial solutions opening procurement for research and development denied where there was no requirement for the agency to conduct discussions and where the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the solicitation.
- Guidehouse LLP, B-419848.3 et al. (June 6, 2022) – Protest of a $24 million Department of Homeland Security task order for financial support services sustained where the agency’s impaired objectivity OCI analysis was unreasonable and mistakenly focused upon whether the two efforts were similar in size and scope rather than whether the awardee would be in a position to review its own work.
Lou's Insights
Event | 01.25.24
The GAO Bid Protest Process: Revealed, Uncut, and Uncensored
Have you ever wanted candid answers about how the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) works and decides bid protests? As the only law firm with three former GAO bid protest hearing officers, who have a combined 44 years of experience deciding bid protests, Crowell invites you to an in-person roundtable discussion featuring behind-the-scenes insight and tips.
Press Coverage | 03.15.23
Lou's Insights
Event | 01.25.24
The GAO Bid Protest Process: Revealed, Uncut, and Uncensored
Have you ever wanted candid answers about how the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) works and decides bid protests? As the only law firm with three former GAO bid protest hearing officers, who have a combined 44 years of experience deciding bid protests, Crowell invites you to an in-person roundtable discussion featuring behind-the-scenes insight and tips.
Press Coverage | 03.15.23
