"Getting" government contracts can be very lucrative to companies -- after all, the federal government is the largest customer in the United States. Federal government procurement is a $250 billion marketplace that can be extremely profitable to companies with services or products to sell to the government. The opportunity for small and medium sized companies to profit from government contracting is huge.

We help companies get federal government contracts.

Albo & Oblon is a government contracts law firm located in the heart of the government contracting community in the Washington, D.C. area. Through decades of representing government contractors, our lawyers know how to help companies get, keep, administer, and get paid for government contracts – and get more follow on contracts.

We help companies get valuable government contracts through our Federal Government Marketing Program. Our team includes the well-known attorney, Terrence M. "Terry" O’Connor, who has authored four books on government contracting, and who has taught federal procurement law and procedure to hundreds of government contracting officials. It also includes John Polk, who formerly served as Director of Compliance and Fraud Remedies for the United States Air Force, and James Whitus, who formerly served as a Commander in the United States Navy.

For a monthly retainer, amounting to a fraction of the profit from a successful federal government contract, we will:

1) Identify the best federal marketplace for you. The federal government consists of a complicated and vast array of departments, agencies, and government-owned corporations, each with different procurement needs and cultures.

• We will identify appropriate government markets in which to target your company’s products or services.
• We will identify the incumbent providers.
• We will determine the agency’s purchasing history.
  

2) Calculate the existing government budgets within your markets to further target prospects.

• We will determine whether there is government money to buy your product or service.
• We will find out how much the government is currently spending for products and services similar to that which you wish to sell.
  

3) Advise you on making your government proposals responsive and more attractive to the government.

4) Research existing government needs and requirements to present to you as opportunities. Matching an existing need is the easiest way of winning a government contract. However, there are a huge number of needs in many locations and forms.

• We will regularly search these for you.
• We will provide you with specific details of federal government contract opportunities uniquely focused on your company’s products, many times within days of their release by the government agency.
• We can help connect you with agency contracting officials and can assist in setting up meetings for you. This will give you an opportunity to highlight the advantages of your products or services and explain how they will help the citizens of the United States.
• We will also help you establish relationships with the decision-makers in the federal government procurement community so that you can learn about potential government contracts before publication.
• We will provide you with regularly updated lists of names of the government employees responsible for buying the products your company sells.
• We will work to connect you with Agency personnel, like small business specialists, assigned to help small businesses, as appropriate.
  

5) Get your company on the General Services Administration (“GSA”) Schedule, as appropriate. In some instances, this can make it easier for the federal government to do business directly with your company.

6) Personally guide you through to successful completion of essential registration requirements any government vendor must comply with, such as the Central Contractor Registration (“CCR”) process and the Online Representation and Certification Application (aptly abbreviated as “ORCA”).

7) Qualify you for government preferences, as appropriate. Unlike in the private sector, the government does not always buy from the lowest priced vendor. They consider factors such as location of the seller, size and ownership of the company, background of the owners, and sales history. We would use these rules to your advantage where possible.

8) Work to locate alternative ways of doing business with the government. Doing work directly for the government is not the only way to make money. Subcontracts and teaming arrangements are valuable; sales of components for another company’s government contracts are as well. We can help introduce you to local companies that are integrated into the government contracting community to explore potential relationships.

9) Help you bid on contracts that interest you. Winning government contracts is not like doing business in the private sector. It is very complex. When we find an opportunity that you like, we can advise you on the government solicitation process from the time you get a government solicitation through the submission of offers. When you do win a contract, we will make sure it precisely matches the terms of your offer.

10) Teach you to be a better government vendor so you can be more successful. If you lose a contract, we will personally guide you through the “debriefing” maze to make sure you know exactly what the government found helpful as well as unhelpful to improve your chances of winning the next contract opportunity.

A Law Firm Advantage

Because we are a government contracts law firm, we are available for additional fees to help you keep, administer, get paid for, and otherwise troubleshoot your federal government contracts. Since we will be already familiar with your government contracts practice you will not have to pay us to “get up to speed” on your company and contract, potentially saving your company significant amounts of money in legal fees.

A Process

Winning government contracts, in most instances, is a process. It involves knowing where to look, when to bid, how to bid, the development of relationships, and networking. It takes a multidisciplinary approach utilizing contacts and knowledge gleaned from decades of government contract work. For this reason, Albo & Oblon requires clients to make a minimum commitment to our Federal Marketing Program for a period of twelve months. Your company’s investment in our program is a fraction the profits you could earn from a successfully performing government contract, and is much more cost effective than hiring an in-house government contracts marketer, or advertising on conventional media outlets targeting the federal procurement community.