Procurements & Bid Protests

Are you a vendor or would you like to do business with educational entities in the State of Florida, such as school districts, state colleges, state universities or state agencies, such as the Florida Department of Education? We can help you put together good bid proposals that meet the legal requirements for competitive procurements, and often legally help vendors help vendors with either bringing or defending bid protests, particularly when a request for proposals or invitation to negotiate has been issued.

Timelines in procurements are often very short, some of the timelines are measured in hours not days, so the earlier we can become involved in familiar with the substance of your procurement, the more help we can usually be. Also, there are certain things that have to be done before a notice of intent to award a procurement happens, such as challenges to the bid specifications, asking necessary questions during the bid process, and challenging bid specifications that are not clarified by the questions. So a vendor is usually better served by getting us involved before an award is noticed or a challenge is filed.

However, we are also used to getting those calls when there only 10 hours left before a deadline to file a notice of intent to protest, or similar situations, and we will do our best to help in the situations where the clock is running out. Again, once a bid protest is actually filed, particularly once has been referred to the division of administrative hearings (DOAH), cases tend to move very rapidly, with most hearings happening within 30 days unless the parties agree otherwise. This means all the discovery and preparation for trial has to be done on a very expedited basis. One has to fit into several weeks what is often done over the course of several years in general civil litigation.

We work with businesses large and small, both those based in Florida and, often, those doing or seeking to do work in Florida but based elsewhere. We often serve as local counsel for national or international businesses seeking to do business in Florida.

If you are a vendor in the public education sector in the State of Florida, whether before school boards, state colleges, state universities, or state agencies give us a call and we can discuss how we can help you put together, win, and deliver winning proposals.