Bid Protests

Article by: Ryan Bradel, Partner Most small business government contractors know the general rule cold: a company’s size for a small business set-aside is determined as of the date of its initial offer. But there are critical exceptions. The most impactful is the one for mentor-protégé joint ventures. Under a rule SBA crafted in...

Article by: Nicholas Hopkins, Associate GAO recently issued a stark reminder to bid protesters that denied protest grounds cannot be re-raised after corrective action. Even where GAO orders corrective action, the protester must immediately request reconsideration if it believes GAO erred by denying or failing to address a protest ground. It cannot wait until...

Article by: Rory Hatch, Associate GAO’s recent sustain, Effective Communication Strategies, LLC; Corps of Engineers, serves as a reminder that contracting officers have an affirmative obligation to give offerors a reasonable opportunity to respond to solicitation amendments, and that a flurry of same-day, weekend, and sub-hour deadlines does not satisfy that obligation. Protest Background...

Article by: Nicholas Perry, Associate In a recent bid protest decision, Noblis MSD, LLC v. United States, No. 25-1637C (Mar. 19, 2026), the Court of Federal Claims handed protester Noblis a pyrrhic victory. Noblis’s protest concerned an approximately $100 million Department of the Navy contract award to Solute, Inc. for the provision of systems...

In a recent bid protest decision, Markon LLC, B-423767-.4, December 12, 2025, the Government Accountability Officer (GAO) delivered a pointed reminder about the limits of agency discretion in cost realism evaluations. In this case, which involved a solicitation for business operations, information technology engineering support, and business enterprise modernization services, the Central Intelligence Agency...

Back in June 2024, we wrote about a 3-judge panel’s holding in Percipient.AI, Inc. v. United States, 104 F.4th 839 (Fed. Cir. 2024), that a contractor was permitted to bring a bid protest against the government alleging violations of a procurement statute even though it did not “challenge a contract, proposed contract, or solicitation...