Primary Practice Areas

Federal Procurement Outside Counsel

Contractors must navigate the complex framework of statutes, regulations, and legal precedents that govern federal contracts to successfully deliver products and services to the government. TILLIT LAW clients receive efficient, tailored, and cost-effective federal contracts outside counsel services throughout the procurement lifecycle. With Sareesh’s extensive track record of consistently offering reliable and comprehensive legal counsel to contractors of varying sizes, clients can feel confident that their legal matters are being managed with the utmost knowledge and practical understanding of applicable procurement laws, rules, and regulations.

Experienced contractors recognize the strategic importance of engaging outside counsel with a specialized focus on federal procurement matters. This approach, when working in synergy with in-house counsel and contract administration teams, empowers contractors to tap into specialized expertise precisely when needed. Such collaboration enables contractors to conserve internal resources for everyday operations, instead of inefficiently expending them on infrequently encountered legal matters. Sareesh is adept at working alongside in-house counsel or collaboratively with executive teams to address complex federal procurement compliance and regulatory challenges effectively.

The firm provides a comprehensive suite of outside counsel services to contractors of all sizes and across a wide range of issues that span the entirety of the acquisition lifecycle. This strong commitment to providing exceptional outside counsel services in federal contracts at some of the most competitive rates necessarily involves a client-centric approach. In recognition of the fact that each client’s needs are unique, the firm offers flexible engagement terms depending on the facts and circumstances of each matter. This flexibility allows the firm to further adapt its already specialized legal services to the specific requirements of each client, ensuring a tailored and cost-effective legal approach.

To ensure that our existing and prospective clients remain informed and current with the latest developments, regulations, and legal precedents in the federal procurement landscape, TILLIT LAW offers a dedicated section of Featured Insights articles on our website and through various firm channels. Contractors can now also access the firm’s entire featured insights repository on GovConFeaturedInsights.com. This fully searchable platform offers over 100 informative articles and posts for contractors on topics covering the entire federal procurement lifecycle. Some of the most recent articles pertinent to regulatory compliance and other federal procurement issues are included below on this page.

Federal Procurement Featured Insights Schedule Consultation

Featured Insights

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Unbalanced pricing exists when despite an acceptable total evaluated price, the price of one or more line items is significantly over- or understated. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.404-1(g)(2) instructs contracting officers (COs) to analyze offers with separately priced line items or subline items to determine whether the prices are unbalanced. If unbalanced pricing is detected, the FAR requires that the CO consider the risks to the government in making the award decision and whether the contract award will result in paying unreasonably high prices for contract performance. If the performance or pricing risks associated with unbalanced pricing rise to unacceptable levels, the procuring agency may reject the offer containing the unbalanced pricing. Alternatively, the agency may accept the offer with unbalanced pricing if, after conducting a risk assessment, it determines that the offer does not pose an unacceptable performance risk and that the government is unlikely to pay unreasonably high prices. The methodology and scope of an agency’s cost or price analysis are matters within the agency’s discretion, and the GAO only reviews the record to ensure that the evaluation is reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation and the applicable law.

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At the outset of a small business set-aside procurement, the contracting officer (CO) assigns the procurement a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code, which has a corresponding size standard. The CO is also responsible for structuring the procurement as one for manufactured products or supply items, or for services. When a contract for manufactured products or supply items is set aside for small business, the prime contractor must either manufacture the end item or qualify under the nonmanufacturer rule. Entities may qualify as a manufacturer if they manufacture the end item in the United States. Under the relevant regulations, a manufacturing entity utilizes its own facilities to perform the primary activities in transforming inorganic or organic substances, including the assembly of parts and components, into the end item being procured. Notably, there can only be one manufacturer of an end item for size purposes. The Small Business Administration (SBA) conducts an analysis under three factors enumerated in 13 C.F.R. § 121.406(b)(2)(i) to determine whether an entity is the manufacturer. These factors are:

  • (A) The proportion of total value in the end item added by the efforts of the entity, excluding costs of overhead, testing, quality control, and profit.
  • (B) The importance of the elements added by the entity to the function of the end item, regardless of their relative value.
  • (C) The entity’s technical capabilities; plant, facilities and equipment; production or assembly line processes; packaging and boxing operations; labeling of products; and product warranties.
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The General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) program requires pre-approved schedule contractors to publish an authorized FSS pricelist containing all the supplies and services they offer. The pricelists include the terms and conditions for each Special Item Number (SIN) on the contractors’ schedules. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.401 defines a SIN as a group of generically similar (but not identical) supplies or services intended to serve the same general purpose or function. When issuing requests for quotes (RFQs) under FAR subpart 8.4, procuring agencies may include a provision identifying a SIN and expressly limit the procurement to that SIN. In such procurements, only contractors with the identified SIN on their schedule contracts may compete to fulfill the requirement. Additionally, in service procurements, contractors may only propose labor categories (LCATs) that fall under the applicable SIN. However, procuring agencies do not always identify an applicable SIN or limit the contractors’ ability to only propose LCATs from a particular SIN. In the absence of such SIN limitations, contractors may compete for the RFQ if the quoted goods and services are available on their underlying FSS contracts without regard to a particular SIN.

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