Miller & Chevalier Chartered recently filed an amicus brief on behalf of The Coalition for Government Procurement (CGP), addressing an important issue for contractors who sell commercial products and commercial services (collectively, commercial items) to the government. The brief urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reverse the November 2, 2022 decision of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC) in ACLR, LLC v. United States, 162 Fed. Cl. 610 (2022). In its decision, COFC barred the contractor from recovering its "reasonable charges" resulting from a termination-for-convenience, based solely on an interpretation of FAR 52.212-4(l) under which COFC assessed the qualitative adequacy of the contractor's "standard record keeping system." As explained in the Miller & Chevalier amicus brief, COFC's interpretation is contrary to the plain language of FAR 52.212-4(l), as well as the regulatory scheme governing commercial item terminations-for-convenience implemented pursuant to the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA). 

The case is ACLR, LLC v. United States, No. 23-1190 (Fed. Cir.). The amicus brief was authored by Jason Workmaster, Alex Sarria, and Elizabeth Cappiello.*

*Former Miller & Chevalier attorney 

The information contained in this communication is not intended as legal advice or as an opinion on specific facts. This information is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. For more information, please contact one of the senders or your existing Miller & Chevalier lawyer contact. The invitation to contact the firm and its lawyers is not to be construed as a solicitation for legal work. Any new lawyer-client relationship will be confirmed in writing.

This, and related communications, are protected by copyright laws and treaties. You may make a single copy for personal use. You may make copies for others, but not for commercial purposes. If you give a copy to anyone else, it must be in its original, unmodified form, and must include all attributions of authorship, copyright notices, and republication notices. Except as described above, it is unlawful to copy, republish, redistribute, and/or alter this presentation without prior written consent of the copyright holder.