1 | Top Ten Reasons to Intervene in Bid Protests

Top Ten Reasons to Intervene in Bid Protests By Aron C. Beezley A series of recent bid protest decisions from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in which the protest was sustained—but in which an intervenor was not involved—serve as a great opportunity to remind federal government contractors of the importance of intervening in bid protests. For the (Top Ten) reasons set forth below, the decision not to intervene in a protest of a procurement on which your company bid or proposed frequently ends up being “penny wise and pound foolish.”

The Top Ten List

1. The contracting agency’s interests may not be the same as your company’s interests and your company is

in the best position to protect and advocate for its own interests. In fact, contracting agencies owe an

equal duty to all offerors and therefore, their interests are broader than, and potentially distinct from,

your company’s interests.

2. Your company knows its proposal better than anyone. Thus, you are best equipped to rebut challenges to

your technical proposal, cost/price proposal and past performance. Similarly, intervenors often times are

in the best position to respond to organizational conflict of interest (or “OCI”) allegations.

3. Intervening will help your company better protect its confidential and/or proprietary information if it

becomes part of the record during the bid protest.

4. Likewise, by intervening, your company will be in a better position to protect its business reputation.

5. Some government attorneys are overworked and have limited resources. Other government attorneys are

“green” when it comes to bid protests because their offices simply do not see very many of them.

6. If the contracting agency decides to take corrective action in response to the protest, an intervenor will

be in a much better position than a non-intervenor in terms of being able to influence the nature and

scope of the corrective action.

7. An intervenor can make arguments that, for whatever reason, the government does not or cannot make.

8. If your company is the incumbent-contractor, then you likely are more knowledgeable than the protester

(and possibly the government) about the actual work under protest. Accordingly, you are uniquely

qualified to rebut the protester’s factual assertions about the nature and scope of the work at issue.

9. In a U.S. Court of Federal Claims bid protest, your company, as an intervenor, will be able to articulate

with unique force and specificity the harms that it will suffer if a temporary restraining order or an

injunction is issued in connection with the protested contract.

10. Most bid protests are covered by a protective order that prohibits the attorneys from disclosing protected

information (i.e., confidential, proprietary and source selection sensitive information). However, by

intervening, your company will have the ability to be better informed about the course of the protest and

the status of the procurement (subject, of course, to the terms of any protective order that is issued in the

protest).

2 | Top Ten Reasons to Intervene in Bid Protests

Aron C. Beezley

Associate, Washington, D.C. Direct Dial 202.719.8254 Email abeezley@babc.com

Aron focuses primarily on government contracts and construction law. Named a Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers “Rising Star” in the area of Government Contracts Law in both 2014 and 2015, Aron’s vast government contracts experience includes representation of government contractors in a variety of industries in all aspects of the government-contracting process, including negotiation, award, performance, and termination. The George Washington University Law School, J.D., 2009

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