By Dana Livne Whether you have decided to sell your company or have just begun considering the possibility, you will want to make the most out of your market potential. The preparation you undertake before the sale will help you maximize this unique opportunity, and to a large extent, determine your financial and professional future. To put your business in the strongest position for sale, it is crucial that you prepare a strong business exit strategy. This plan should include . . . Read More
On October 24, on the eve of its implementation, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a nationwide order halting the implementation of the bulk of Executive Order 13673, Fair Pay Safe Workplaces, which imposes new reporting requirements on government contractors regarding labor law violations and prohibits them from entering into pre-dispute arbitration agreements for matters arising under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and for torts based on sexual assault or harassment. Under the . . . Read More
SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Small Business Mentor-Protégé Programs – Corrections The SBA has issued technical corrections to its final rule published in the Federal Register on July 25, 2016 (81 FR 48557), amending its regulations to establish a new government-wide mentor-protégé program for all small business concerns, consistent with SBA’s mentor-protégé program for participants in SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program. The rule, which went into effect August 24, 2016, also made several additional changes to current size, 8(a), Office of Hearings . . . Read More
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION, AND NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION Clarification of Requirement for Justifications for 8(a) Sole Source Contracts The Department of Defense (“DOD”), General Services Administration (“GSA”), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”) have issued a proposed rule to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation to clarify the guidance for sole-source 8(a) contract awards exceeding $22 million. This proposed rule responds to the recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) in its report, “Slow Start . . . Read More
This article is the third installment in a series on Data Rights in Federal Contracts. We first wrote about what data rights were ; then about technical data and how to protect it ; and now we will discuss ownership, license rights, and the protection of rights in non-commercial computer software. Because non-commercial computer software is treated like non-commercial data under the FAR (a topic discussed at length in the prior installment of this series), we will focus now on how non-commercial software is treated under the DFARS. That said, the general principles discussed . . . Read More
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS Implementing Category Management for Common Goods and Services The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (“OFPP”) in the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) has proposed the issuance of a new OMB Circular, Implementing Category Management for Common Goods and Services, to codify category management, a strategic practice where Federal contracting for common goods and services is managed by categories of spending across the Government and supported by teams of experts. The Circular establishes key principles, and strategies and . . . Read More
By Julia Di Vito The National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) for Fiscal Year 2016, which went into effect on November 25, 2015, contains some requirements regarding multiple award contracts that you might not know about. The 2016 NDAA amended part of the Small Business Act, 15 U.S.C. § 644(q), which governs the award of contracts by the Federal Government. This statute, as amended, now requires that for any multiple award contract above the “substantial bundling threshold of the Federal agency,” the agency . . . Read More
