James Boland is a member of the firm’s Government Contracts group. Mr. Boland’s practice covers a broad range of federal procurement issues frequently encountered by contractors, including bid protests; suspension and debarment; ethics and compliance; intellectual property issues; claims and requests for equitable adjustments; prime/subcontractor issues; and small business matters.

A considerable portion of his practice focuses on the area of bid protests, where Mr. Boland and the Venable team have a successful track record of prosecuting protests and defending awards before numerous federal agencies, ensuring that clients obtain they result they want.  Recent protest matters include:

• Mr. Boland assisted the Venable team on behalf of a defense contractor in challenging the contractor’s elimination from a nearly billion-dollar manufacturing competition.  Following a GAO hearing, the agency took corrective action, and the contractor eventually received an award after a lengthy reevaluation. 
• Mr. Boland played an important role in successfully defending the award of a billion-dollar defense logistics contract at the GAO, highlighting the reasonableness of the agency’s evaluation and award decision and, ultimately, leading to the withdrawal of the protest.
• In a protest before the FAA’s Office of Dispute Resolution for Acquisition, Mr. Boland assisted a company that was challenging the award of a services contract on the basis of an improper evaluation of its proposal, causing the FAA to cancel the award and re-compete the contract.  
• Mr. Boland protested an agency’s failure to set aside a procurement exclusively for small businesses under the SBA’s “rule of two.”  The agency took corrective action, amending the solicitation to set aside the competition for small businesses. 
• Mr. Boland successfully challenged the HUBZone status of an awardee to the SBA on behalf of a services contractor.  The protest decision, which was affirmed by the SBA on appeal, led to the disqualification of the awardee and the award of the contract to our client. 

Mr. Boland also counsels clients on a spectrum of contractor ethics and compliance issues, including the new mandatory disclosure rules.  He has helped a variety of companies – facing the possibility of suspension and/or debarment –demonstrate their present responsibility before civilian and defense agencies.  For example, Mr. Boland assisted a services contractor in a debarment action which, after a hearing, led to the termination of the proposed debarment.  He also assisted the Venable team as it negotiated a settlement of a False Claims Act qui tam suit on behalf of a non-profit organization, and assisted in the negotiation of a reasonable settlement for attorneys’ fees with the relator’s counsel.

Mr. Boland has experience preparing, negotiating, litigating and/or defending a variety of claims under the Contract Disputes Act at the agency level, as well as before the Board of Contract Appeals and U.S. Court of Federal Claims. For example, Mr. Boland recently represented a defense contractor in a patent infringement suit at the Court of Federal Claims because it was the manufacturer of the allegedly infringing product. In this effort, Mr. Boland assisted the Venable team in challenging the validity of the patent at issue, resulting in the invalidation of all of the patent’s claims. Examples of other claims litigation include: claims for equitable adjustments based on contract changes; claims for breach damages; claims for Prompt Payment Act interest; and claims arising out of terminations for default and convenience.

Activities

Mr. Boland has been active in the firm’s pro bono program.  He recently represented a client in a Social Security disability appeal, convincing the Administrative Law Judge to reverse two earlier findings of non-disability and find that his client was entitled to disability payments.