This year, Jessica Berrada, 2L, and Chung Kun "Kevin" Park, 3L, shared first place in the American Bar Association's (ABA) Division I Public Contracts Writing Competition. Eric Valle, 3L, came in third place. The annual writing competition provides monetary awards to law students and young lawyers for outstanding papers that address a topical issue of interest to the public contract and grant law community.
Jessica Berrada, submitted her Law Review Note, "Zen and the Art of Suspension & Proposed Debarment: A Call for Pre-Exclusion Notice and Opportunity to Respond." In her abstract, Ms. Berrada explained that suspension and debarment officials within the U.S. Government procurement system can exclude a contractor on a public website from bidding on or winning new contracts without any prior notice. This lack of pre-exclusion notice and the opportunity to be heard violates the due process rights of businesses and individuals engaged in government contracting. The article's proposed solution balances the Government's concerns against the contractors' due process rights by proposing that the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council amend the FAR. The amendment would make pre-exclusion notices compulsory except when the Government requires immediate protection from a contractor that presents continuing, likely, and immediate future risk to the Government's reputation or operations. Ms. Berrada shared with GW Law that her paper will be published in the next volume of the Public Contract Law Journal; she will present her Note topic at the Federal Procurement Institute on March 15, 2018. "I am deeply honored by the Public Contract Law Journal's selection of my Note as first place winner. Having the opportunity to contribute to the prestigious Public Contract Law Journal and speak at the Section's Federal Procurement Institute are exciting ways to contribute to the legal community's intellectual trust," Ms. Berrada said.
Kevin Park's paper, "Removing Uncertainty for the Most Uncertain Times: the Need for Amending the Anti-Assignment Acts to Better Prepare for a Financial Crisis," focused on a 2005 case from the Court of Federal Claims, Anchor Sav. Bank v. United States, by applying the analysis set forth in Anchor to some of the key transactions that took place between financial institutions during the financial crisis. Mr. Park explained the inspiration behind his paper, saying that his academic focus had always been with financial crises. "Ever since I came to GW Law, I had been looking for an opportunity to write an in-depth analysis about an aspect of the 2008 financial crisis," Mr. Park said. "I had the good fortune of working with Professor Arthur Wilmarth during my 1L summer, where I developed a rudimentary understanding of how some of the key transactions during the 2008 crisis originated. This topic fascinated me, and I worked with Professor Steven Schooner and Professor Collin Swan to find an intersection between it and government contracts. The topic of my paper was the result."
Eric Valle's paper, "Procurement Discrimination and the Per Aarsleff Problem: Is the United States Upholding Its Obligations Under Its Free Trade Agreements?" focused on U.S. partnerships with foreign nations through Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). In his abstract he explained that many FTAs require Executive agencies to provide nondiscriminatory treatment to foreign businesses when procuring goods and services. According to those FTAs, the United States must provide a forum where foreign businesses can challenge an Executive agency’s violation of the FTA's terms. Recently, a United States Court of Federal Claims decision cast doubt on the United States' compliance with its FTAs. It is now unclear whether the United States will provide a forum to foreign businesses seeking to challenge an Executive agency's violation of a FTA's terms. Now that the United States is going to "Buy American" and "Hire American," foreign businesses seeking to do business with the government must understand where they can challenge violations of the FTAs. The paper explores options and proposes an answer to this pressing concern.
Division II Winners
1st: Michael Pangia, LLM Class of 2018, "Developing an Organizational Conflicts of Interest Framework: The U.S. System as a Starting Point"
2nd: Jesse Greene, LLM '17, "The Glenn Defense Marine Asia Problem: The Role of Ethics in Procurement Reform"
3rd: Francis Kiley, LLM '17, "Cross Debarments in the United States"