Chair’s News: Changes, Challenges, and Kudos

These are extraordinary times for government contracts professionals, with unprecedented changes impacting the Section membership, our clients, and perhaps the procurement system itself as the administration proceeds with potentially the most significant revisions of the federal procurement regulations since the promulgation of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) over forty years ago. As these events have unfolded, the Section has reiterated our commitment to all of our members in government, industry, and private practice—to work with our colleagues in government to further our shared goal of ensuring a fair, open, transparent, and efficient procurement process. At the same time, the Section has noted its concern regarding recent executive orders directing government agencies to consider terminating contracts held by companies that work with particular law firms. In this, the Section has echoed ABA President William R. Bay’s reminder that “clients have the right to have access to their lawyer without interference by the government.”

Considering all this, there is no better time than now to recall the Section’s mission statement: “To provide balanced recommendations on procurement policy, provide a forum to engage with colleagues across all segments of the procurement industry, and gain insight into and develop unique perspectives of federal, state, and local public contract law.” Consistent with this, and with our long tradition of non-partisan engagement, the Section is actively pursuing every available avenue to provide as much assistance and support as possible to those in the administration who have now been tasked with revising the FAR. The Section welcomes all members who wish to participate in this effort.

Despite these recent changes and challenges in our community, some things have remained the same. The substantive work of our committees and conference planning teams has proceeded without interruption. I am delighted to report that the Section’s annual Federal Procurement Institute (FPI) was an outstanding success in all respects, thanks to the hard work and commitment of our Conference Director Nooree Lee (Covington); Conference Co-Chairs Dominique Casimir (Blank Rome), Young Cho (NASA), Jeff DuVal (HKA Global, Inc.), George Petel (Wiley Rein), and Annejanette Heckman Pickens (General Dynamics Missions Systems); and our tireless Section Director Patty Brennan and Program Specialist Sean Dickerson. Each of the CLE sessions was second-to-none, attendance was outstanding, and the networking opportunities (particularly the ever-popular no-host dinners) were superb.

There is still more to come this bar year, as we again return to Hogan Lovells for our third-annual Committee Showcase on May 15. This year, we will have “Ask the Judges” and “Ask the GAO” panels, as well as a panel on “Best Practices for Managing Risk and Tracking Costs in a Changing Compliance Environment.” Many thanks again to Adam Lasky (Seyfarth) for his help organizing this year’s Showcase.

This remains an exciting time to be a member of the Section of Public Contract Law. If you’re looking for ways to get involved and help us advance our mission, please contact me at [email protected] and Section Director Patty Brennan at [email protected].