JEDI: Oracle’s Chances of Winning Its Appeal Are Good, Contract Lawyers Say
Oracle (ORCL) faces good odds it will win an appeal of a lower court’s rejection of its JEDI protest because the company has correctly pointed out that the judge applied the wrong standard in making the ruling regarding the $10 billion cloud services contract, six veteran contracts lawyers said.
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In applying the wrong standard, the judge determined Oracle couldn’t meet a JEDI data-center requirement and was therefore unlikely to win the contract, leading him to incorrectly conclude that the company hadn’t been harmed, the lawyers said.
Instead, the judge should have used the lower, pre-award standard because Oracle filed its initial protest before DOD awarded the contract to complain about JEDI requirements that the department disclosed when soliciting bids, the lawyers said.
“The argument by Oracle that the judge used the wrong standard makes sense,” said Scott Arnold, a partner at Blank Rome. “It’s not clear why the judge thought it was appropriate to apply a post-award standard.”
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If Oracle loses, it could try to go to Supreme Court, but Arnold said the high court is unlikely to take on a government contracting case.
"JEDI: Oracle’s Chances of Winning Its Appeal Are Good, Contract Lawyers Say," by Ivan Kelly was published in The Capitol Forum on December 16, 2019.