Key Considerations For Litigating Classified Bid Protests

In this article, the authors suggest 10 factors to consider when contemplating a classified protest.

Litigating a bid protest, whether as a protester or as a challenged awardee, is a time-sensitive and often complicated undertaking, further complicated by numerous procedural traps for the unwary. Those complications and time sensitivities increase significantly when all or some portion of the protest involves classified information. Here are 10 considerations for those contemplating a classified protest.

FACTORS TO KEEP IN MIND

1. Find a law firm with a sufficient number of experienced bid protest lawyers with the requisite clearances. Even in a large firm, few attorneys typically have protest experience, and far fewer still have security clearances. The pool of available talent shrinks even further when high-level clearances are required. For a large, complex classified procurement, a party to a protest will typically need an entire team of cleared attorneys,