

NEGOTIATING THE MEGA-DEAL
PART TWO OF FOUR This article is the second part of a four part series about tactics to be used when negotiating a massive contract, a mega-deal, as the lead negotiator for a client company. For context and consistency, the prior Minutillo Newsletter on this topic, part one, ended as follows: “The opponent lead negotiator must believe that he or she can have the upper hand during the negotiations, whether true or not. Most lead negotiators on a deal show an enormous amount of


NEGOTIATING THE MEGA-DEAL
PART ONE OF FOUR Intuition not Logic As a young lawyer, too many years ago, I had the opportunity to watch and learn from the best negotiators, engineers, pricing specialists, and business people as part of a team negotiating complex, multi-million dollar US Government and commercial high tech contracts. To say the least, going through this process over and over again was a tremendous learning experience but not from an intellectual standpoint. As I became capable of taking t


WAS YOUR COMPETITOR AWARDED A US GOVERNMENT CONTRACT THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AWARDED TO YOU?
If you submitted a response to a US Government Request for Proposal, Invitation for Bid or another type of US Government solicitation, thinking that the award was in the bag but you lost it, the usual recourse, a bid protest, might be less appealing in coming years. CONTEXT A bid protest is a formal, written pleading filed by an interested person, company, or other entity who responded to a US Government solicitation expecting award but not receiving it due to a flaw in the p


US Guidance Forces a Strong Emphasis on Buy America
On 30 June 2017, the directors of the Department of Commerce (Commerce), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a Memorandum, “Assessment and Enforcement of Domestic Preferences in Accordance with Buy American Laws.” Executive Order 13788 This Memorandum implements guidance regarding President Trump’s recent Executive Order (EO) 13788. This EO indicates how agencies should maximize the use of domestically manufactured products when procuring goods and services t