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Lucas Hanback and Timothy Wieroniey Author Law360 Article on the 2025 NDAA’s Impact on Bid Protest Strategy

News
January 24, 2025

Last December, former President Joe Biden signed the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act into law, including a provision that requires the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to develop a proposal to apply enhanced pleading standards in protests challenging U.S. Department of Defense procurements. 

The new GAO pleading standards could change the calculus of whether protestors file with GAO or protest before the Court of Federal Claims instead. Rogers Joseph O’Donnell P.C. shareholder Lucas T. Hanback and associate Timothy A. Wieroniey authored a Law360 article (subscription required) on how these new standards may change where protests are filed. 

In their article, “Anticipating How GAO Pleading Standards May Shift,” Hanback and Wieroniey analyze the current pleading standards and discuss GAO’s new mandate. They also explore bid protest strategies that government contractors may use moving forward. 

“It remains to be seen what the GAO’s proposed enhanced pleading standards will look like,” they write in the article. “But harsh enhanced pleading standards will likely shift protests to the Court of Federal Claims. DOD contractors should closely monitor any developments and adapt their bid protest filing calculus in response.” 

Download a PDF of the article here.

Hanback is the co-chair of the firm’s Government Contracts practice group. He litigates civil matters on behalf of government contractors and offers business and compliance counseling to help clients mitigate risk. Hanback has advised clients on various government contract topics, including government contracting ethics and compliance, defense and cyber security issues, terminations, the False Claims Act, small business issues and more. 

Wieroniey is a member of the firm’s Construction, Cybersecurity and Privacy and Government Contracts practice groups. He focuses on representing national construction companies, government contractors and members of the United States Defense Industrial Base.

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