Morrison Foerster’s Government Contracts Insights provides our in-depth analysis of developments and trends impacting government contracting. Through Insights, our attorneys offer a real-time assessment of the statutory, regulatory, legal, and business-related developments and trends that are shaping the industry. We also examine a full array of non-U.S. public procurement issues, mindful that our clients compete in a global marketplace.Morrison Foerster’s nationally recognized Government Contracts and Public Procurement practice represents the world’s leading companies in the aerospace and defense, intelligence, cybersecurity, information technology, financial and professional services, education, healthcare, infrastructure, and logistics support sectors. We are enlisted to address our clients’ most complex and important legal issues. Our work includes contract and subcontract negotiation and other transactional matters, business and regulatory compliance counseling, internal investigations, bid protests, and a wide array of enforcement and litigation matters. Our clients range from Fortune 50 companies to small and medium-sized companies just entering the public sector. We advise both U.S. and non-U.S. companies involved in municipal, state, federal, and non-U.S. procurement matters.<h2>ABOUT MORRISON FOERSTER</h2>Morrison Foerster is a leading global law firm that transforms complexity into advantage for its clients. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, banks, consulting and accounting firms, and Fortune 100, technology, and life sciences companies. Highlighting the firm’s commitment to client service, leadership in market-changing deals and impact litigation, and values-based culture, Morrison Foerster has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top 10 firms on The American Lawyer’s A-List. Year after year, the firm receives significant recognition from Chambers and The Legal 500 across their various guides, including Global, USA, Asia‑Pacific, Europe, UK, Latin America, and FinTech Legal. Our lawyers passionately care about delivering legal excellence while living our values. Morrison Foerster has a long-standing commitment to creating a culture that respects and celebrates differences, while providing an inclusive environment. The firm has achieved Mansfield Certification Plus since 2018 as a result of successfully reaching at least 30 percent women, communities of color, and LGBTQ+ lawyer representation in a notable number of current leadership roles and committees. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community and society through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education and fostering the wellbeing of children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, enforcing the right to asylum, and safeguarding the environment.

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Tina is Co-chair of Morrison Foerster’s Government Contracts & Public Procurement practice. She represents a wide variety of government contractors including information technology, defense, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies, with a focus on general contract counseling and compliance, particularly concerning intellectual property, and cybersecurity matters and federal grant funding.Tina counsels contractors on compliance with federal, state and local acquisition and ethics regulations and with the evolving myriad of requirements pertaining to data security and cybersecurity. She has been involved with numerous internal investigations and compliance reviews, and with mandatory and voluntary disclosures to agencies, and litigation of False Claims Act matters.Tina routinely advises clients concerning:<ul><li>Prime-subcontractor relationships</li><li>Sources of supply and country of origin requirements</li><li>Price reductions and price reporting issues</li><li>Organizational conflicts of interest</li><li>Safeguarding of intellectual property and other proprietary interests</li><li>Licensing and data rights issues</li><li>Handling of classified materials and controlled unclassified information</li><li>Agency suspension and debarment proceedings</li></ul>She also assists clients with due diligence and other activities related to the acquisition of government contracting concerns, and with the drafting and negotiation of teaming agreements, subcontracts, licensing agreements, and cooperative research and development agreements. She also assists clients applying for federal grants (including SBIR and STTR agreements), and those who seek to obtain other transactional authority agreements, as well as those competing for state and local government work.Tina’s litigation experience includes government contracts claims litigation in federal courts and before boards of contract appeals, bid protests before the Government Accountability Office and the Court of Federal Claims, and complex disputes in federal courts, including civil fraud and False Claims Act litigation and reverse Freedom of Information Act litigation.Prior to joining Morrison Foerster, Tina worked at another large national firm and as a trial attorney in the Office of the General Counsel of the Navy, Navy Litigation Office.<h4>Representative Experience</h4><ul><li>Negotiation of largest CHIPS Act federal funding agreement between multinational semiconductor corporation and U.S. Department of Commerce.</li><li>Negotiated prime contract and major subcontracts related to the Department of Energy’s next generation supercomputer program, including extensive IP rights negotiations and negotiation of associated patent rights waivers.</li><li>Negotiated series of other transaction authority agreements with DARPA and associated subcontracts with more than a dozen research universities on behalf of a firm biotech client, including complex IP rights allocations and material transfer agreements.</li><li>Assist clients with FedRAMP authorization process and with development of license agreements for software products sold to federal, state and local government agencies.</li><li>Cyber incident response counseling to some of the largest companies and organizations impacted by security incidents.</li><li>Advises clients on Bayh-Dole reporting of inventions and IP strategies for contracts and grants.</li><li>Conducts due diligence for major government contract mergers and acquisitions.</li></ul>

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Tina is co-chair of Morrison Foerster’s Government Contracts & Public Procurement practice. She counsels a wide variety of government contractors on compliance with federal acquisition and ethics regulations. She drafts and negotiates contracts on their behalf and has been involved with numerous internal investigations and compliance reviews, and with bid protest, contract claims, and False Claims Act litigation. She also advises on M&A transactions involving government contractors.

Tina D. Reynolds

Jim Tucker is of counsel in Morrison Foerster’s Government Contracts and Public Procurement Practice Group and is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.Jim’s practice runs the gamut of litigation and counseling in federal procurement matters, with an emphasis on bid protests, Cost Accounting Standards disputes, and small business matters. He has represented both protesters and awardees in scores of protests before the Government Accountability Office, the Court of Federal Claims, and procuring agencies, in acquisitions ranging from small business procurements to multibillion-dollar contracts of global significance. His representative protest matters span the aerospace sector, the Intelligence Community, base operations and logistics, healthcare, nuclear and environmental work, and information technology and software acquisitions. His protests have included both classified and unclassified programs. In addition to prevailing in published decisions, Jim has also secured favorable corrective action on behalf of clients in a wide variety of protests that were resolved without a published decision.Jim’s work also focuses on disputes over cost allowability and compliance with the Cost Accounting Standards, and he has appeared before the Armed Services and Civilian Boards of Contract Appeals, in size and status protests before Small Business Administration (SBA) area offices, and appeals before the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals. Jim regularly counsels clients on contract interpretation, organizational conflicts of interest, and small business compliance.Jim graduated with high honors from the George Washington University Law School, where he focused his studies on federal procurement law, was a member of the Law Review, and interned with the General Services Administration’s suspension and debarment office. Jim also holds a degree in theology magna cum laude from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a bachelor’s degree in classical languages and literature summa cum laude from the University of Kentucky, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

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Jim maintains an active practice in bid protests before the Government Accountability Office and contracting agencies and counsels clients in contract disputes and compliance obligations.

Jim Tucker is of counsel in Morrison Foerster’s Government Contracts and Public Procurement Practice Group and is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Jim’s practice runs the gamut of litigation and counseling in federal procurement matters, with an emphasis on bid protests, Cost Accounting Standards disputes, and small business matters.

James Tucker

<div style="margin-bottom: 15px;" class="videoWrapper"><iframe class="sticky-video" title="Meet Alex Ward, Government Contracts Practice Co-Chair" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TkliwdSlTaQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="1" title="iframe"></iframe></div>J. Alex Ward is co-chair of Morrison Foerster’s Government Contracts and Public Procurement group. His practice covers a full range of government contracts matters, including investigations, bid protests, claims, general litigation, corporate transactions, and counseling. Alex strives in all matters is to provide his clients the highest level of efficient and effective representation.Alex represents contractors in internal and external investigations, disclosures to the government, and qui tam litigation, with great success in reducing or eliminating his clients’ exposure through active engagement with the government. His work in this area includes obtaining numerous declinations and dismissals of False Claims Act cases in their earliest stages, sparing his clients the cost, risk, and exposure of litigation.He has also served as lead counsel in dozens of bid protests involving military and civilian agency procurements of a wide range of products and services, including all manner of pre- and post-award protests in the GAO, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and state tribunals, as well as appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and size protest appeals before the SBA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals.Alex handles all aspects of the claims process, from the initial assessment and drafting of requests for equitable adjustment through litigation in the Boards of Contract Appeals and the Court of Federal Claims. Alex’s practice also covers the full gamut of other controversies confronting government contractors, including prime-sub, teaming partner, employer-employee, competitor, and indemnification disputes. His litigation work also includes a wide variety of pro bono engagements, in which he has represented both individual and institutional clients in matters ranging from immigration and criminal defense to sustainable procurement and protection of the environment.Prior to joining the firm, Alex served in the U.S. Army as a commissioned officer and an Assistant to the General Counsel of the Army responsible for civil works and international matters, and as a clerk for judges on the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Armed Forces and the D.C. Circuit. He is a member of the Boards of the Morrison & Foerster Foundation and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and of Law360’s Government Contracts Editorial Board.

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Alex is co-chair of Morrison Foerster’s Government Contracts and Public Procurement practice. His practice covers a full range of government contracts matters, including bid protests, claims, investigations, corporate transactions, and counseling.

J. Alex Ward

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Morrison Foerster’s Government Contracts Insights blog provides an in-depth analysis of news, developments, and trends impacting government contracting and procurement. Through Insights, attorneys from our nationally recognized Government Contracts and Public Procurement practice will offer a real-time assessment of the statutory, regulatory, legal, and business-related developments that are shaping the industry. This blog will also examine a full array of U.S. and non-U.S. public procurement issues, mindful that our clients compete in a global marketplace.Read about our <a href="http://govcon.mofo.com/editors/">Authors</a>.Never miss a post. Subscribe to get real-time updates.

Brad is a partner in Morrison Foerster’s Litigation Department, Managing Partner of the Austin office, and Chair of the firm’s Israel practice. He is the former Co-Chair of the firm’s Global Litigation Practice and the Government Contracts + Public Procurement Practice.

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On July 15, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) published a 160-page Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to implement Executive Order (EO) 14055, “Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contracts,” seeking to once again require successor contractors to give a right of first refusal of employment to certain employees of predecessor contractors. 

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EO 14055 Proposed Rules Require Successor Contractors to Once Again Offer First Right of Refusal to Predecessor Workers | Government Contracts Insights

Andrew R. Turnbull

Nicole E. Giles

On July 15, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) published a 160-page <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/07/15/2022-14967/nondisplacement-of-qualified-workers-under-service-contracts">Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)</a> to implement <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/11/23/2021-25715/nondisplacement-of-qualified-workers-under-service-contracts">Executive Order (EO) 14055</a>, “Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contracts,” seeking to once again require successor contractors to give a right of first refusal of employment to certain employees of predecessor contractors. EO 14055 was the latest development in the long history of the Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers rule, which, as we previously <a href="https://govcon.mofo.com/topics/in-a-long-anticipated-move-the-trump-administration-revokes-executive-order-13495-giving-service-contractors-more-flexibility-when-hiring-predecessor-contractor-employees_01.html">discussed</a>, the prior Trump Administration had revoked to provide successor contractors with more flexibility when staffing. The Biden Administration, however, believes that the proposed nondisplacement rule will lead to less disruption in services due to a carryover workforce as well as a more experienced, well-trained workforce providing such services. Regardless of the political dynamics, contractors should take note of the new requirements in the NPRM and how it might impact their operations. Interested parties and stakeholders can submit comments to DoL on the NPRM on or before August 15, 2022. The DoL has not yet slated a timeframe for when the rule might become final.Covered ContractsThe NPRM seeks to cover any successor contract, contract-like instrument, or subcontract (at any tier) covered by the Service Contract Act of 1965 (SCA) that is over the simplified acquisition threshold, which is currently $250,000. EO 14055 applies to any contracts with an executive department or agency, including an independent establishment subject to the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act. Under the NPRM, when a covered service contract expires and the government awards a follow-on contract for the same or similar services, the contracting officer must include the contract clause in Appendix A of the NPRM in the successor’s prime contract. Once the prime contract meets the coverage thresholds, each subcontractor at any tier must comply with EO 14055, even if the value of the subcontract is under the simplified acquisition threshold.The NPRM also says that a covered contractor or subcontractor has an “affirmative obligation” to ensure its contract contains the clause if it should have been included, including notifying the contracting officer as soon as possible if the clause was not incorporated.Covered EmployeesThe first right of refusal would need to be provided to all “service employees” covered by the SCA. The SCA applies to all employees engaged in the performance of an SCA contract that are not exempt under a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Significantly, “service employees” can include independent contractors that work on an SCA contract that would not otherwise be exempt under the FLSA. The NPRM excludes employees who were hired to work under both an SCA contract and one or more nonfederal service contracts as part of a single job, provided that the employees were not deployed in a manner that was designed to avoid the purposes of EO 14055.Location RequirementsUnder the NPRM, prior to the solicitation being issued for a covered contract, agencies must consider whether the location of the predecessor contract is reasonably necessary to ensure economical and efficient provision of services. If the agency determines that the same locality or localities are reasonably necessary, then it must include a requirement or preference in the solicitation for the services to be performed at the same locality or localities. Alternatively, an agency must include a statement regarding their location continuity analysis should they determine that a location preference is not warranted. This then allows affected workers or their collective bargaining representative to request reconsideration of the determination. If the successor contract will be performed in a new locality, the successor contractor is not responsible for paying the relocation costs of predecessor employees who accept a job offer with the successor contractor.Right of First RefusalIf implemented as proposed, the NPRM will require covered successor contractors to give the incumbent employees a bona fide offer of employment for positions for which they are qualified, if those same employees would otherwise be terminated as a result of the award or expiration of the predecessor contract. Successors must presume that predecessor employees will be terminated as a result of the award, unless they can demonstrate a reasonable belief otherwise based upon “reliable information provided by a knowledgeable source.” Successor contractors are free to determine the number of employees necessary for efficient performance of the contract and may elect to employ more or fewer employees than the predecessor contractor. Covered successor contractors, however, cannot have any job openings for non-predecessor candidates without first making an offer of employment to the covered predecessor employees. In order for the successor contractor to make these offers, the NPRM contemplates that predecessor contractors will be required to submit to the contracting officer during the last month of contract performance a list of the names of all service employees working under the contract and its subcontractors as well as the anniversary dates for each covered service employee. This list must be provided to the contracting officer no fewer than 10 business days before the earlier of the completion of the contract or the predecessors work on the contract. The contracting officer must provide the list to the successor contractor. The contracting officer must also provide the list to employees or their representatives if requested by them.Requirements for OfferThe successor must make a written offer of employment in language that the employee can understand and provide at least 10 business days for employees to consider it. The offer will generally be presumed to be a bona fide offer if it is for the same position or one for which the employee is qualified. Successor contractors, however, can offer different positions with different terms and conditions of employment, including pay or benefits, as long as the different employment terms and conditions are not offered to discourage employees from accepting offers. If the successor has or will have employees in the same or similar occupational classification who work entirely remotely during the course of the contract, the successor must offer the predecessor employee in that same classification the option to work remotely under “reasonably similar terms and conditions.”The successor contractor’s obligation to offer a right of first refusal exists even if it has not been provided a list of the predecessor’s employees and even if the list does not contain the names of all persons employed during the final month of contract performance. In addition, a successor may have an obligation to provide an offer to a predecessor employee not on the list if there is reliable evidence that the employee worked for the predecessor during the last month of contract performance. Such reliable evidence, according to the NPRM, could include any evidence showing an employee’s assertion of an assignment to work on the predecessor contract during the predecessor’s last month of performance, coupled with contracting agency staff verification or a paycheck stub identifying the work location and dates worked.Under the NPRM, covered successor contractors do not have to make job offers to predecessor employees whom the successor reasonably believes, based on reliable evidence of the particular employee’s past performance, there would be just cause to discharge. In addition, successors may use employment screening processes (i.e., drug tests, background checks, security clearance checks, and similar pre-employment screening mechanisms) when such processes are provided for by the contracting agency, are conditions of the service contract, and are consistent with the EO 14055. Successors may not use an employment screening process by itself to conclude that an employee is unqualified because they have not yet completed that screening process.Recordkeeping ObligationsContractors will be required to maintain copies of certain records for three years to verify compliance with this rule, including documents (such as written offer letters of employment) and records showing the basis for any exclusions or exceptions being claimed.Waiver of RequirementsThe NPRM also specifies that, before a solicitation is issued, a contracting agency can waive some, or all, of the requirements of EO 14055 for a prime contract if the senior procurement executive issues a written determination (with facts and supporting reasoning) that at least one of the following circumstances exists with respect to a contract: (1) adhering to the requirements would not advance the U.S. government’s interests in achieving economy and efficiency in federal procurement; (2) based on a market analysis, adhering to the requirements would substantially reduce the number of potential bidders, frustrating a full and open competition that cannot be reasonably tailored to the agency’s needs; or (3) adhering to the requirements would otherwise be inconsistent with statutes, regulations, Executive Orders, or Presidential Memoranda.EnforcementThe NPRM provides specific procedures for DoL to investigate and enforce complaints about potential violations of EO 14055.  Predecessor contractor employees, or their representatives, who believe the successor contractor has violated EO 14055, may file a complaint with the DoL Wage and Hour Division within 120 days from the first date of contract performance. DoL may investigate potential violations, whether through a complaint initiated by a predecessor employee or their representative, or on their own initiative. Upon conclusion of the investigation, DoL will issue a written determination of whether a violation has occurred. The decision can be challenged in certain instances at DoL, or an interested party can request a hearing before an administrative law judge within 20 calendar days of the determination.The NPRM also identifies sanctions and remedies that can be imposed by DoL for noncompliance. For example, violating contractors can: (1) be required to employ each affected person and pay back lost wages; (2) have government funds withheld; or (3) face up to a three-year debarment.The prime contractor is responsible for the compliance of any subcontractor or lower tier subcontractor. In the event of any violations, the prime contractor and any subcontractor(s) responsible will be jointly and severally liable for any unpaid wages and prejudgment and post‑judgment interest and may be subject to debarment, as appropriate.Next StepsDoL estimates that 449,200 contractors and over 1.4 million workers could potentially be affected by this rulemaking. Service contractors who expect to bid on or take over a predecessor service contract should continue to monitor the NPRM and the final rule for EO 14055 and determine how the final rule might impact their solicitation process or procedures for onboarding a predecessor’s covered workers. Stay tuned as we continue to follow the latest developments on EO 14055.

EO 14055 Proposed Rules Require Successor Contractors to Once Again Offer First Right of Refusal to Predecessor Workers

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