Category: Elizabeth N. Jochum

Two Recent Blank Rome Team Recognitions

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We’re pleased to share two recent accomplishments of our Government Contracts attorneys.

They’ve Got Next: Government Contracts Fresh Face Elizabeth Jochum

Blank Rome partner Elizabeth N. Jochum has been featured in Bloomberg Law’s “They’ve Got Next” series, which spotlights young lawyers who are “raising the bar in various practice groups.”

Elizabeth is one of five attorneys featured in the government contracts installment. The featured attorneys “work at the intersection of litigation, regulation, and government procurement” as they navigate and defend clients against bid protests.

Read more, including an excerpt of Elizabeth’s “They’ve Got Next” spotlight, as published in Bloomberg Law, on our website.

Justin A. Chiarodo Named to Law360’s 2023 Aerospace & Defense Editorial Advisory Board

Blank Rome LLP is pleased to announce that partner Justin A. Chiarodo, who serves as chair of our firm’s Aerospace, Defense & Government Services industry team and Government Contracts practice group, has been named to Law360’s 2023 Aerospace & Defense Editorial Advisory Board.

Learn more about the board and Justin on our website.

60-Second Sustains: Life Science Logistics, LLC

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Elizabeth N. Jochum ●

Life Science Logistics, LLC
B-421018.2, .3

  • The protester alleged that GSA failed to conduct meaningful discussions by not raising, in pre-corrective action discussions, significant weaknesses that resulted in the proposal being rated unacceptable in a post-corrective action evaluation.
  • GAO has held that, when an agency seeks revised proposals and performs a new evaluation, that reevaluation may identify flaws in a materially unchanged proposal that the agency would have been required to discuss with the offeror, had the flaws been identified when the proposal was initially evaluated.
  • In that situation, the agency must reopen discussions in order to disclose its concerns.
  • GSA argued Life Science’s pre- and post-corrective action proposals were materially different, but GAO found that the content that gave rise to the significant weaknesses was present in both proposals but had been overlooked in the initial evaluation.
  • Since the Agency did not advise Life Science of the significant weaknesses in its initial proposal when conducting discussions, GAO sustained the protest and recommended GSA reopen the procurement, conduct meaningful discussions, and evaluate revised proposals.

Law360: Gov’t Contracts Group of the Year: Blank Rome

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Law360, February 17, 2023

Blank Rome’s Government Contracts group was recently named a 2022 Practice Group of the Year by Law360, which honors “the attorney teams behind litigation wins and major deals that resonated throughout the legal industry this past year.” Blank Rome is one of five firms recognized in the Government Contracts practice group category nationwide. 

Read the group’s full Practice Group of the Year profile, as published in Law360, on our website.

FY 2022 Sees Number of Protests Fall, Solicitation Challenges Join the List of Most Likely Protest Grounds to Be Sustained

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Luke W. Meier and Elizabeth N. Jochum ●

The Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) has released its Annual Report to Congress summarizing bid protest activity for Fiscal Year 2022 (GAO-23-900462). The report mostly shows a continuation of recent trends: the overall number of GAO protests continues to drop, “effectiveness” remains high and stable (51 percent), and there are very few hearings (two for the year). Of note, preaward solicitation challenges were one of the most successful types of protest at GAO, for the first time ever since GAO began reporting the bases for successful protests in 2013. Below we break down what contractors can glean from this latest report.

Overall numbers down

The total number of protests filed at GAO continues to fall. The chart below shows the number of protest actions reported by GAO over the last several years.

Continue reading “FY 2022 Sees Number of Protests Fall, Solicitation Challenges Join the List of Most Likely Protest Grounds to Be Sustained“

60-Second Sustains: Tech Marine Business, Inc.

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Elizabeth N. Jochum ●

Tech Marine Business, Inc.
B-420872.1, .2, .3

  • The protester alleged that it should have been assigned a strength for its transition plan, which exceeded the Navy’s schedule for workload turnover and would be completed “well in advance[] of the 60-day requirement.”
  • The Agency argued that, as GAO has held, it is not required to document determinations of adequacy or explain why a proposal did not receive a strength for a particular item. The Agency represented that it reviewed the protester’s transition plan and did not consider the proposed ability to transition faster than the 60-day requirement to be a strength.
  • GAO found this insufficient and that the agency “provides no explanation—contemporaneous or otherwise—to support the reasonableness of its evaluation of Tech Marine’s transition plan.”
  • GAO stated it failed to see, and the Agency failed to explain, why exceeding the transition schedule would not benefit the Agency.
  • GAO recommended the Agency reevaluate Tech Marine’s proposal and make a new source selection determination.

60-Second Sustains: R&K Enterprise Solutions, Inc.

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Elizabeth N. Jochum ●

R&K Enterprise Solutions, Inc.
B-419919.6, .7, .8

  • The protester alleged the Air Force’s best-value tradeoff decision was unreasonable because it consisted of a “mechanical comparison of point scores that did not take into account the underlying bases for those scores” and because the source selection authority only considered the awardee’s proposal and did not compare the merits of the offerors’ proposals.
  • GAO agreed, noting that the award determination document discusses only the awardee’s proposal, with no reference to R&K’s proposal.
  • The Agency had argued that the selection authority had relied on the evaluation board’s recommendation and rationale, but GAO found that, even if that were the case, that recommendation was “based entirely on a mechanical evaluation of point scores” without a qualitative comparison of underlying strengths and weaknesses and was therefore unreasonable.
  • GAO recommended the agency perform and document a proper best-value tradeoff.

60-Second Sustains: Selex EX, Inc.

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Elizabeth N. Jochum and Luke Meier ●

Selex EX, Inc.
B-420799

  • Selex ES argued that the solicitation, which sought proposals to replace a tactical air navigation system, was unduly restrictive of competition because it could be interpreted to require offerors meet the navigation system’s flight check qualification and readiness level requirements at the time of proposal submission rather than at the time of award or performance.
  • GAO found that the solicitation was patently ambiguous regarding whether the requirements are due at time of proposal submission or at time of award and that Selex ES was prejudiced by the ambiguity and GAO sustained the protest on that basis.
  • GAO declined to address whether it would be unduly restrictive of competition to expect offerors to meet the requirements at the time of proposal submission given the patent ambiguity.
  • GAO recommended the agency amend the solicitation to clarify when various requirements are due.

Law360 Rising Star: Elizabeth N. Jochum

Blank Rome partner Elizabeth N. Jochum was profiled as a 2022 Government Contracts Rising Star by Law360, notably honoring her as one of the top five government contracts attorneys nationwide under the age of 40. (See Law360 Names Elizabeth N. Jochum a 2022 Government Contracts Rising Star)

In her profile, Elizabeth talks about why she’s a government contracts attorney, her biggest recent case and other important cases throughout her career, and her proudest moments as an attorney.

You can read an excerpt on our website. 

60-Second Sustains: Insight Technology Solutions, Inc.

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Elizabeth N. Jochum ●

Insight Technology Solutions, Inc.
B-420543.2

  • Insight Technology challenged a solicitation requirement that offerors possess capability maturity model integration (“CMMI”) level 3 certification at the time of proposal submission.
  • GAO denied the argument that the certification requirement was unduly restrictive of competition overall but agreed with the protester that requiring the certification at time of proposal submission, rather than at time of award, was unreasonable.
  • GAO found nothing in the record to support a need for the certification prior to the start of performance, much less before award.
  • The agency argued earlier certification was necessary to allow it to evaluate offerors, but GAO found no reason the objective determination of whether the offeror possessed the certification would need to be completed until immediately before award, at the earliest.
  • GAO recommended the agency amend the solicitation to allow certification at time of award or performance.

60-Second Sustains: Office Depot, LLC

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Samarth Barot and Elizabeth N. Jochum

Office Depot, LLC
B-420482

  • Office Depot challenged GSA’s attempt to use a single blanket purchase agreement to purchase both hardware/industrial supplies and office supplies, arguing that the evaluation scheme was unreasonable because it was predicated on consideration of incomplete historical sales information for the office supplies.
  • The protester argued that the market basket to be used for evaluation was based on historical sales of hardware and industrial items, to the exclusion of data on office supplies, which resulted in a market basket which didn’t reasonably represent the likely purchases of office supplies.
  • GAO agreed that the Agency had unreasonably relied on limited historical data regarding office supply sales to predict its future buying needs and that it had no (or virtually no) basis for forecasting estimated quantities of office supplies.
  • GAO recommended GSA conduct additional market research and revise the solicitation with a reasonable representative sample of estimated hardware/industrial items and office supply purchases.
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