Primary Practice Areas

Bid Protests

TILLIT LAW clients receive effective counsel and representation on pre and post-award bid protest matters regardless of their size and industry. In counseling and representing his clients on protest issues, Sareesh presents unbiased government and industry perspectives on solicitations, bid and proposal evaluations, and award decisions. He approaches every bid protest matter with a deep understanding and knowledge of federal procurement processes, regulations, and ever-evolving legal precedents. Sareesh has served clients in bid protest matters in a broad range of industries, including:

  • Aerospace
  • Defense
  • Information Systems & Technology
  • Logistics
  • Manufacturing
  • Professional & Personnel Support Services

Clients receive dependable counsel on their bid protest matters without having to choose from a myriad of large and mid-sized law firms, all providing similar services at cost-prohibitive rates with little to no personalized attention. It is no secret that federal contractors face many challenges in identifying, capturing, and bidding on solicitations to secure or retain government business. Therefore, when protest issues present themselves, their government contracts attorney should be singularly focused on providing counsel and representation that results in the best possible client outcome.

Sareesh approaches and resolves all bid protest matters with this foundational principle in mind. Clients not only receive counsel on the appropriate forum, timing, and grounds for their protests but also understand how acquisition regulations and relevant precedent apply to the specific procurement at issue, enabling them to consistently make informed choices in their bid protest matters.

So that existing and prospective clients may understand and stay up to date with developments, regulations, and precedents, the firm provides a dedicated section of Featured Insights articles on bid protest issues on its website and other channels. Existing clients also access featured insight articles relevant to their industry and circumstances on their dedicated Client Portal. Some of the most recent articles relevant to bid protests are included on this page.

Bid Protests Featured Insights Schedule Consultation

Featured Insights

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It is in the government’s best interests that professional employees on federal contracts be fairly compensated. However, recompetition of service contracts often results in lower compensation for professional employees, which can harm the quality of professional services required for contract performance. Thus, certain solicitations for service contracts may contain the provision at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.222-46, which requires procuring agencies to conduct a two-prong evaluation of professional employee compensation plans. The first prong is essentially a price realism evaluation of the offeror’s proposed compensation to determine whether it understands the contract requirements and has proposed a compensation plan appropriate for those requirements. The second prong requires the procuring agency to determine whether a proposal contemplates compensation levels lower than those of predecessor contractors by comparing proposed compensation rates to incumbent rates. Thus, in addition to a price realism analysis, FAR 52.222-46 requires procuring agencies to compare the compensation of the incumbent professional staff to the proposed professional compensation. If the procuring agency fails to conduct such a comparison, the evaluation of professional employee compensation plans may be protested as unreasonable.

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Government Accountability Office (GAO) bid protest regulations provide government agencies and protestors 10 days to file their requests for reconsideration after the basis for reconsideration is known or should have been known. This typically means that in the absence of significant development or changes, the parties have 10 days from the issuance of the GAO’s protest decision to file their request for reconsideration. Requests to change or modify GAO’s recommended remedy are also considered requests for reconsideration and when filing such requests, the parties must adhere to the 10-day filing deadline. If the request for reconsideration is untimely, the GAO may not consider it, regardless of the party filing the request. This is because GAO regulations do not contain a provision granting the office discretion to consider untimely requests for reconsideration, even when a significant issue is involved or for good cause shown. Thus, unsuccessful protestors who wish to file requests for reconsideration with the GAO should ensure strict adherence to the 10-day filing deadline.

On December 12, 2024, the GAO sustained a post-award bid protest in B-422938; B-422938.2, finding that the government’s answer to a contractor question during the Q&A period amounted to a mandatory solicitation requirement that had to be met at the time of proposal submission, and which the awardee’s proposal had failed to satisfy. This protest was the subject of the year’s first TILLIT LAW Featured Insight article published on January 2, 2025. In that post-award protest decision, the GAO concluded that the Air Force had erred in awarding an approximately $180 M task order for portable satellite terminals to a small business holder of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solution for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract. The protestor’s solution, which was technically acceptable and met solicitation requirements at the time of proposal submission, had a total evaluated price of approximately $300 M. The GAO recommended that the Air Force either reevaluate the proposals and issue the award to an offeror that proposed a terminal assembly that met the solicitation requirements or amend the solicitation to reflect the government’s actual needs.

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Government agencies utilize the simplified procedures in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.4 to acquire commercial products and services at negotiated discounted rates from pre-qualified vendors. Despite the simplified procedures, procuring agencies must be fair and equal when conducting exchanges with offerors under the FAR 8.4 Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) program. Notably, while the provisions of FAR part 15 governing contracting by negotiation include provisions relevant to post-proposal discussions with offerors, they do not apply to competitive FSS procurements. Under FAR part 15, when an agency conducts discussions with an offeror to obtain essential information relevant to the determination of acceptability of the offeror’s proposal or provides that offeror an opportunity to revise or modify its proposal, it must afford the same opportunity to all other offerors in the competitive range. In other words, the procuring agency may not conduct unequal discussions with offerors in the competitive range. Similarly, although specific procedures of FAR part 15 are inapplicable, solicitations for FAR 8.4 procurements must still contemplate procedures governing exchanges that are fair and equal, failing which the terms of the solicitation may be challenged during pre-award protests.

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