Devon Hewitt

Devon Hewitt is a Partner in the firm’s Government Contracts practice and has over 25 years' of experience representing emerging, small, mid-size and large government contractors located across the United States and abroad. Ms. Hewitt is best known as a bid protest attorney, having participated in well over 200 bid protests lodged at various federal agencies, including the Small Business Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Government Accountability Office. She also has participated in bid protests filed at the United States Court of Federal Claims and is one of the few bid protest attorneys that has argued bid protest decisions on appeal at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Ms. Hewitt represents government contractors in a wide variety of transactional matters such as the drafting and negotiation of subcontracts as well as teaming, cooperative, nondisclosure, non-compete, operating, joint venture, commercial vendor and Other Transaction Authority agreements. She also advises government contractors on issues related to mergers and acquisitions, novations, government investigations, the Service Contract Act, intellectual property and data rights, suspension and debarment, contract claims, ethics and compliance, Organizational Conflicts of Interest, FOIA requests and reverse FOIA letters, and notices of default and terminations, among others. She has significant experience with the Small Business Administration’s small business preferential programs and has twice served as a trial expert on this topic.

Ms. Hewitt is a frequent speaker/panelist on government contracts issues and has appeared on Federal News Radio and at events sponsored by the Public Contracts Section of the ABA, the Professional Services Council, the National Contract Management Association, SECAF, NVSBC, ACT-IAC, NDIA, Women In Public Policy and the Government Technology Services Coalition. She has been a columnist for Washington Technology and Bloomberg’s Federal Contracts Reports as well as the author of a treatise on federal small business contracting programs, editor of the ABA’s The Procurement Lawyer and contributor to the legal publication Inside the Minds.

Representative Experience

Bid Protests

• Successfully filed a Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction to enjoin the Department of State’s override of CICA stay imposed in a GAO protest
• Prevailed in a series of GAO bid protests challenging the Department of State’s award of a $240 million contract for foreign language instruction, testing services, and curriculum development

Government Investigations

• Represented SDVOSB in a voluntary disclosure leading to an investigation conducted by an agency’s Office of Inspector General regarding the company’s submission of resumes that failed to comply with its GSA Schedule position descriptions; successfully negotiated claim of $1.2 million in damages to a payment of $265,000
• Represented small, disadvantaged business in an investigation conducted by an agency’s Office of Inspector General and subsequent action by the US Department of Justice alleging company falsified the qualifications and experience of personnel placed on various government contracts; successfully negotiated claim of over $3 million in damages and penalties to a payment of $255,000
• Represented owner and CEO of a government contractor suspended and proposed for debarment by the US Department of Justice for allegedly engaging in bribery with the city of Detroit; Justice Department agreed to enter into an Administrative Agreement instead of pursuing debarment
• Successfully represented international aviation company in debarment action resulting from criminal convictions of the principals of an acquired company

Small Business Matters

• Served as an Expert Witness in litigation involving a Utah Native American tribe regarding its tribal company’s compliance with SBA’s Section 8(a) regulations
• Drafted testimonials and submitted regulatory comments on behalf of over 30 contractors in their challenge to SBA’s determination that the size standard for Environmental Remediation Services should be increased
• Represented Joint Venture member in litigation against Section 8(a) member alleging 8(a) member violated workshare provisions of Joint Venture’s operating agreement
• Represented a Fortune 50 government contractor “Mentor” in drafting and negotiating a second Mentor/Protégé Agreement and associated Joint Venture Agreement with its second proposed “Protégé
• Participated it two bid protests regarding SBA “adverse impact” determinations
• Won appeal of the SBA’s determination that an awardee of a HUD asset management contract was “other than small” based on the “ostensible subcontractor” affiliation principle

Transactional

• Represented government contractor in negotiation of a Project Agreement under an Other Transaction Agreement managed by the National Spectrum Consortium for the study of Radio Frequency Spectrum usage by DoD
• Represented SDVOSB is the sale of a division of the company with contracts and task orders under GSA Schedule contracts requiring novation
• Represented manufacturer of technology used to detect explosives and chemical warfare agents in negotiating a Cooperative Agreement with the Department of Homeland Security
• Represented SDVOSB in negotiation of a GSA Contractor Teaming Agreement with large public relations firm

Ethics and Compliance

• Conducted internal investigation for government contractor which had an employee disclose confidential information of a competitor to the contractor’s other employees
• Assisted large ANC in auditing and refining a Corporate Compliance program for it and its numerous subsidiaries
• Drafted an Organizational Conflict of Interest mitigation plan related to large contract award

Litigation/Arbitration

• Represented small business in litigation with a large prime where large business claimed small business violated and conspired with another large business to breach small business’ subcontract with the large prime
• Represented a Singapore company in a AAA arbitration dispute with a large federal contractor over non-payment for the construction of Army garrisons in Afghanistan
• Represented large Joint Venture member in arbitration alleging small business member absconded with Joint Venture funds