Like many practice areas, there is no typical day in procurement law. On some days, a government organization may look to us to draft a new purchasing policy that incorporates the procurement chapter of a new trade agreement. Those assignments are typically followed up with an in-person presentation about the ABCs of procurement law beginning with the seminal case of The Queen v. Ron Engineering and ending with the transition to the USMCA. Throughout the presentation, project managers and other procurement specialists ask hypothetical but extremely nuanced questions about the issues they face during open procurements. As with most legal issues, the questions are not black and white but every shade of grey.
Urgent matters are also common. Oftentimes a potential government supplier will have made a mistake during an open procurement. Some examples include omitting a mandatory form, including a team member who is ineligible to participate, or submitting a late bid. Other times potential suppliers have issues beyond their control, such as overly restrictive technical specifications or other unfairness in the procurement process. If one of these calls comes in, it requires a quick but thorough review of the request for proposal (RFP), the purchasing policies of the buyer, and the relevant trade agreements. Clients in these situations are understandably distressed as being disqualified can mean missing out on millions of dollars of work.
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