About
For almost 15 years, Justin served as an attorney to the United States, advising military commanders, program officials, and contracting officers at agencies across the federal government. He now brings that insider’s perspective to contractors seeking to do business with the United States.
Justin graduated in the top 10% of his law class at Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2010. He served as a mediator in Cook County Courts until joining the United States Air Force as a Judge Advocate in January 2011, where he prosecuted courts-martial in the United States, Korea, and Germany. Since 2016, he has worked exclusively on government contracts matters in the National Capital Area, serving as counsel in more than 100 bid protests and claims appeals across billions of dollars of federal spending.
As trial counsel for the Air Force Commercial Litigation Directorate, Justin received the Exemplary Civilian Service Medal for his work in government contracts litigation. He has dealt with practically every area of the FAR, DFARS, and many agency-specific FAR supplements. He was hired at Federal Student Aid as the first procurement attorney working directly inside FSA, and helped grow that program from one attorney to five. He concluded his federal civil service career as the Acting Assistant General Counsel for Procurement Law at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, leading an office of eight attorneys.
Dispute resolution is not a zero-sum game. Parties typically have a range of needs and interests; understanding them — and the logic of federal fiscal law — paves the way for resolutions that work for both sides.
Justin is an efficient problem-solver. He balances relationship building with strong advocacy and avoids unnecessary fights. His foundational experience as an Air Force Judge Advocate — where commanders demanded the right advice, on time, and free of nonsense — informs his representation of every client.
Justin continues his service to the United States as a Lieutenant Colonel in the District of Columbia Air National Guard.
Representative Experience
Nearly all of the matters listed here and on the following page were handled as counsel for the United States — inside the procurement system, advising contracting officers and program offices on bid protests, claims, terminations, and settlements. That experience is the foundation of Justin’s work for contractors today.
Bid protests · As counsel for the agency
- Defended an agency award against allegations of latent solicitation ambiguity, failure to seek clarifications, and a flawed past-performance evaluation. (Grove St. Inv., 2023)
- Mitigated agency liability for protest-cost reimbursement by separating meritorious grounds from baseless ones. (NOVAD, 2022)
- Defended the agency’s exercise of a contract option under an 8(a) set-aside after the contractor had graduated from the program. (Monbo Group, 2021)
- Defended a sole-source bridge contract and secured dismissal of the allegation that the protester’s contract should have been extended. (Innotion, 2021)
- Defended the agency’s solicitation for loan servicing, securing dismissal of an untimely allegation and a non-procurement-regulation claim while establishing the solicitation was not unduly restrictive of competition. (NOVAD, 2021)
- Defended the award by showing the protester took exception to material solicitation terms and that its Procurement Integrity Act allegation was procedurally defective. (Alpine Cos., 2021)
- Defended the Air Force’s LPTA methodology against allegations of organizational conflict of interest and bad faith, sustained a sole-source bridge award, and avoided a CICA-stay override at COFC. (Trailboss Enterprises, 2018)
Advice and advocacy
- Convinced the Navy to reverse course on retroactively extending a proposal-receipt deadline to accept untimely proposals, contrary to the FAR and COFC precedent.
Representative Decisions
Hager Dev. Grp., LLC v. United States, 2020 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1424 (Fed. Cl. 2020).
Counsel for the United States. Successfully moved to supplement the administrative record with inconsistent SBA decisions on similarly financially situated offerors, showing disparate treatment by the Army and the Small Business Administration on adequate financial resources and issuance of certificates of competency.
Sage Acquisitions LLC v. HUD, CBCA No. 7319, 2023-1 B.C.A. ¶ 38,315; aff’d, Sage Acquisitions LLC v. Sec’y of HUD, 119 F.4th 973 (Fed. Cir. 2024).
Counsel for HUD. Defended the agency against a contractor seeking termination-for-convenience costs under an IDIQ contract, equitable adjustments for alleged negligent estimates, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, mutual mistake, and diversion under a separate requirements bridge contract. Agency positions were upheld on appeal.
Dawson-Alamo1 JV, LLC, ASBCA No. 60590, 2019-1 B.C.A. ¶ 37,357.
Counsel for the Air Force. Opposed the appellant’s late addition of a mutual-mistake cause of action and reformation remedy in its complaint, where those arguments were never included in the underlying construction claim concerning responsibility for estimate and design inaccuracies under a SABER contract.
Austin Logistic Servs. Co., ASBCA Nos. 60916, 61052, 2018-1 B.C.A. ¶ 36,948.
Counsel for the United States. Defended against a claim by an Afghan contractor debarred from the worksite by the installation commander.
UTi, United States, LLC, ASBCA No. 60188, 2018-1 B.C.A. ¶ 36,933.
Counsel for the United States. Argued a complex jurisdictional motion for dismissal of an appeal based on a non-vessel ocean common carrier’s bills of lading, where such claims are subject to the ICA/Transportation Act rather than the Contract Disputes Act.
Hellenic Air Force, ASBCA No. 60802, 2017-1 B.C.A. ¶ 36,821.
Counsel for the United States. Secured dismissal of a claim regarding allegedly defective KS-127 cameras sold to Greece under a Foreign Military Sales Letter of Offer and Acceptance.
Superior Constr. Co., ASBCA No. 61272, 2017 ASBCA LEXIS 399; subsequent denial in Superior Constr. Co., ASBCA No. 61468, 2020-1 B.C.A. ¶ 37,640.
Counsel for the United States. Secured dismissal of an Afghan construction contractor’s claim on procedural grounds and developed the strategy for the subsequent total denial of the claim on motion for summary judgment.
Davis v. HUD, CBCA No. 7182, 2021 CIVBCA LEXIS 197 & 216.
Counsel for HUD. Moved to dismiss a claim related to an eviction as outside Contract Disputes Act jurisdiction; defended successfully against the appellant’s motion for reconsideration.
Presentations
- “Administrative Investigations: Command Directed and AR 15-6 Investigations,” National Guard Bureau, Arlington, VA (April 2024).
- “Application of Proposal Evaluation Principles,” HUD Procurement Conference, Washington, DC (January 2024).
- “Procurement Ethics, Simple but Not Easy,” HUD OCPO Procurement Summit, Washington, DC (June 2023).
- “Protests, Disputes, and Terminations,” HUD OCPO Roundtable, Washington, DC (April 2023).
- “Better Evaluation Procedures,” ICEP Webinar, Washington, DC (November 2022).
- “Acquisition Double Feature — Omissions and Questions and Answers,” HUD OCPO Roundtable, Washington, DC (March 2022).
- “HUD Evaluation Team Training,” HUD OCPO Procurement Summit, Washington, DC (June 2021).
- “Commercial Litigation in Public Procurement — An Agency Perspective,” NALS Conference, Norfolk, VA (October 2017).
- “Overview of the Administrative and Criminal Military Justice System,” NALS Conference, Norfolk, VA (October 2017).
Recognition
- Air Force Exemplary Civilian Service Medal, 2019.
- HUD Office of the Chief Procurement Officer Best Program Office of the Year — Procurement Law Division, 2023.
- Order of the Coif, Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2010.
- Air Force Commissioned Officer Training Distinguished Graduate, 2011.