Government Contracts

Companies competing in the government market face new and heightened complexities, from determining the viability of a bid protest to successfully challenging or defending an agency’s contract award decisions. Businesses in high-stakes bid protest litigation depend on our experienced counsel to defend their contract awards and protest contract evaluations and unfavorable award decisions. We advise major defense, information technology, and management service companies, as well as smaller support service and commercial item contractors. Our clients have sought our counsel on a range of issues arising in bid protest litigation, including technical and cost evaluations, organizational conflicts of interest, procurement integrity, country of origin compliance, task order awards, cost and price realism analyses, and pre-award challenges to solicitation terms. We also assist clients with making informed judgments regarding whether and where to file a protest. We frequently participate in debriefings to help clients obtain an adequate base of information to determine when a protest is justified and can achieve a meaningful business result.

Contractors pursuing claims against and involving the federal government rely on our experience and understanding of government contracts and litigation to assess, litigate, and resolve government contracts claims. 

Whether the government has asserted a claim against a company or a company seeks to file a claim against the government for payment of monies owed under a government contract, our team can help defend or prosecute such claims. 

Ashurst Perkins Coie’s Government Contracts practice helps clients develop and litigate contract claims by and involving the government in a variety of forums, including claims under the Contract Disputes Act (CDA) involving defense and civilian agency contracts. Our team helps clients prepare and pursue REAs and CDA claims tailored to their business objectives, as well as other damages claims arising under the Tucker Act. We also help clients anticipate and manage disputes with subcontractors and higher-tiered contractors and counsel clients on dispute resolution strategies related to all aspects of federal procurement. The team has litigated complex high-dollar-value contract cases before the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and federal district courts. We have represented clients in arbitrations involving complex issues such as government cost accounting, breach of contract claims, and prime-subcontractor disputes.

Experienced in bet-the-company cases involving billions of dollars in claims, we have significant depth in FCA investigations, litigation, and related counseling for defense contractors, healthcare companies, and individuals.  

The government’s primary civil remedy to redress fraud against the government, the FCA imposes treble damages and penalties for violations, creating risks for companies doing business with the government. Many FCA matters require a coordinated defense on multiple fronts, including thorough investigation; early and effective communications with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), state attorneys general, or other authorities; and a rigorous defense in court—including on appeal, if necessary. Our lawyers regularly help companies assess and mitigate risks of exposure to alleged violations of the FCA, including by conducting internal investigations; counseling companies on statutory, regulatory, and contract requirements; preparing mandatory and voluntary disclosures to agencies; and developing tailored compliance programs.

To help clients comply with federal export control regulations, our lawyers draw on years of experience with rules administered by agencies at the highest levels, including the U.S. Department of State. We also assist clients with compliance and reporting obligations, including those under the various sanction regimes administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the U.S. Commerce Department’s Office of Antiboycott Compliance, International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), and Export Administration Regulation (EAR). We provide counsel to a range of industries, including shipping, defense, aerospace, electronics, telecommunications, software, and others that produce technology products for defense, dual-use, and commercial applications.

Companies that sell commercial products and services to the government rely on our experienced guidance in matters involving FAR Part 12 and the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Supply Schedules program. Government contractors require assistance with issues involving compliance program development and maintenance, subcontractor flow-down issues, counseling and representation in potential criminal and civil investigations, internal investigations, and representation in GSA audits and subpoenas. We offer counsel on related matters, including Buy American Act/Trade Agreements Act and other country-of-origin requirements, as well as mandatory disclosures.

Increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats present ongoing risks to government contractors who must mitigate and respond to risks and effectively manage incidents, government investigations, and litigation. 

The government is continuously seeking to identify and disincentivize noncompliant and insufficient cybersecurity practices, and government contractors must stay abreast of, and in compliance with, an ever-changing patchwork of cybersecurity requirements. In recent years, government contractors’ cybersecurity has become a top priority for the U.S. government amid heightened concerns about malicious threat actors targeting sensitive government information. The government’s approach includes using the FCA to bring enforcement actions alleging deficient cybersecurity products and services and false representations regarding compliance with cybersecurity requirements. Maintaining cybersecurity policies and practices that are demonstrably compliant and reasonable is essential to reduce risks. 

Ashurst Perkins Coie’s team includes former DOJ lawyers with experience handling matters involving national security, cybersecurity, and allegations of fraud. Our lawyers have served in roles such as DOJ’s liaison to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cyber Division and National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, senior counsel in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of DOJ, cyber prosecutor in DOJ’s National Security Division, and trial attorney in DOJ’s Civil Division focusing on government contracts litigation. This depth and our ability to provide a cross-disciplinary approach to issues that arise enables us to help our clients respond to government enforcement in multiple contexts, including assisting with internal and government investigations, anticipating emerging regulatory and contractual requirements, and effectively responding to cyber incidents and disclosures to agencies. Additionally, we partner with a range of cybersecurity professionals and have lawyers with extensive experience in cybersecurity at a technical level.

Companies subject to government investigations or internal investigations require experienced counsel to navigate the complex disclosure processes and avoid potential suspension or debarment arising out of alleged criminal or civil law violations.

Ashurst Perkins Coie’s investigative work related to government contracting involves allegations of faulty manufacturing practices, collusive bidding, cost accounting and mischarging issues, defective pricing, procurement integrity violations, and fraud. Internal investigations must be handled with the utmost discretion and often within urgent time limitations, as many of the issues related to an internal investigation can trigger a federal investigation. Our lawyers are adept at handling the parallel enforcement actions that various government entities may pursue. Experienced in working and negotiating with federal prosecutors, agency offices of inspectors general, suspension and debarment officials (SDOs), and other government officials, we help resolve legal issues on behalf of our clients, leveraging the experience of the firm’s White Collar & Investigations practice. Clients often call our lawyers to help fashion the remedial actions required by our investigation.

Helping clients assess whether and when to disclose evidence of misconduct to the government is another core area of our practice. In recent years, federal officials have paid more attention to contractors’ obligations to follow rules regarding mandatory disclosure to the government of “credible evidence” of violations of criminal fraud statutes or the FCA. Ashurst Perkins Coie regularly advises clients on whether and how to make voluntary or mandatory disclosures to the government, as well as issues resulting from these disclosures, including adopting prospective approaches to strengthen compliance programs and controls.

For a government contractor, nothing is more vital than its eligibility to compete for and hold government contracts. Any threat to those rights must be handled with extreme sensitivity. When a federal agency considers suspension or debarment of a contractor, our lawyers combine technical skill and credibility in responding to the threat. Our team has experience working with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and civilian agency SDOs to help resolve threatened or actual suspensions and debarments.

Our lawyers have worked and negotiated with key agency decision-makers to forestall and prevent agency suspensions and debarments. Our team is skilled at crafting government contract compliance programs that help clients avoid issues that might present the threat of suspension and debarment.  

Life sciences and biodefense companies collaborate with a breadth of federal agencies to successfully address matters affecting their government contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and other transaction authority programs.

Our lawyers partner with life sciences and biodefense companies in matters relating to contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and other transaction authority agreements. We have developed a particular focus on biodefense, pandemic influenza preparedness, and the government’s COVID-19 response, representing clients working with a broad array of federal agencies, including the DOD, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) (including HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health, as well as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs under its Federal Supply Schedule program. Our team includes in-house experience with a major pharmaceutical company with large-scale research and development contracts relating to the development of influenza, Ebola, and anthrax countermeasures.

We work from start to finish with our clients on life sciences contractsand have drafted and negotiated numerous subcontracts related to government programs, including those for assay development, laboratory testing, clinical and nonclinical studies, contract manufacturing, fill/finish manufacturing, and product supply, storage, and transportation.

Our cross-functional approach also includes experience with U.S. Food and Drug Administration licensure and manufacturing requirements, IP, patent portfolio management, labor and employment law, corporate law, and M&A.

Federal contractors must navigate the nuanced requirements of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.

Companies performing government contracts may be required to comply with nondiscrimination and affirmative action obligations required by DOL regulations.

Ashurst Perkins Coie’s lawyers assist clients to navigate the full range of DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program (OFCCP) activities, including Affirmative Action Plan preparation, compliance audit representation, and enforcement litigation defense. By partnering with our clients to respond to specific questions, we provide tailored solutions to their issues, work through troublesome situations, and guide the implementation of client policies.

The team’s federal contractor compliance and investigations work is led by a former associate solicitor for civil rights and labor management at the DOL. In that role, he served as the chief legal counsel to OFCCP and developed deep knowledge and experience in the agency’s operations. He is also a nationally recognized figure on pay equity matters, an issue of particular significance given OFCCP’s focus on compensation discrimination during the Biden administration.