Michael Flynn - Legal Aspects of Public Procurement (Cornerstones of Public Procurement)

This book belongs on the shelf of every public supply chain professional. The text is interesting, readable, and equally relevant to students, new buyers, and seasoned professionals. The many examples bring clarity and are often entertaining.

John Alder,
CPPO, Vice President of Procurement, Dallas Area Rapid Transit

In professional procurement we must continually add value to the procurement process. This revised book, designed to complement NIGPs Public Procurement Competency Framework, will show you how to add that value.

Edward J. Pabor,
CPPO, CDT, C.P.M.

This third edition of Legal Aspects of Public Procurement enhances earlier editions by adding real life scenarios, allowing students to relate the text to the procurement world they work in. The authors expansion of critical topics such as invitations for bid and requests for proposals makes this text more relevant to todays procurement workload. These experts in procurement legal matters establish a solid foundation that should be a standard desktop reference for all emerging procurement leaders.

Kristy D. Varda,
CPPO, CPPB

Legal Aspects of Public Procurement, Third Edition provides a glimpse into the relationships between the legal, ethical, and professional standards of public procurement, outlining not only the interconnections of federal, state, and local law but also best practice under comprehensive judicial standards. The book addresses the ever-changing legal structures that work in conjunction and define the public procurement profession, providing recommended guidance for how practitioners can engage in the function while staying ethically aligned. Instead of trying to address every issue at the heart of public procurement, however, the book seeks to establish the history and spirit of the law, outlining how practitioners can engage proactively and willingly to not only perform their function, but to also become advocates for procurement law modernization.

This third edition features new chapters on competitive sealed proposals and contract administration, as well as a thoroughly revised and updated chapter on procurement of information technology to better relate to an increasingly digital world. Promoting a start-to-finish guidance of the procurement process, Legal Aspects of Public Procurement explores the relationships between solicitations, offers, contract administration, and the cutting-edge aspects of technology procurements, providing a theoretical and case-study driven foundation for novice and veteran practitioners alike.

Michael Flynn, Esq., is a professor of law at the Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Professor Flynn received his undergraduate, magna cum laude, and his law degree, cum laude, from Gonzaga University in Washington. He was a trial lawyer and litigator in private practice and the Assistant Attorney General in the Washington State Attorney Generals Office. He served as the Chief of the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Division of the Washington State Attorney Generals Office in Eastern Washington. He has taught at the University of Washington, the University of Miami, and Stanford University; has authored over 35 articles; and has conducted or presented at seminars and conferences for various professional groups.

Kirk W. Buffington, CPPO, C.P.M., is the Director, Procurement Services for the City of Fort Lauderdale, FL. Prior to public service, he was employed in the private sector. He holds a bachelors degree from Florida State University and earned his masters of business administration degree from Webster University. A strong supporter of the profession, He has served numerous positions of leadership in procurement associations on the local and national level. He sits on the NIGP Board of Directors. By invitation, he presented a paper at the first International Symposium on Supply and Public Procurement in Budapest, Hungary in 2003. He is a well-known speaker on government eProcurement topics.

Richard Pennington, CPPO, was General Counsel to NASPO ValuePoint from 2013 until 2018. He is a retired Air Force colonel who specialized in government contract law as a judge advocate. With the State of Colorado, he served as an assistant attorney general, state purchasing director, and director of the Division of Finance and Procurement. He was also of counsel in the Denver government contracts practice of McKenna, Long & Aldridge LLP. He received his Air Force commission from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a J.D. from the University of Denver, and an LL.M. (Government Procurement Law) from The George Washington University. His articles appear in NIGPs Government Procurement and NCMAs Contract Management magazines. He is the author of Seeing Excellence: Learning from Great Procurement Teams.

Bradley A. Davis

General Editor

NIGPThe Institute for Public Procurement, USA

Content Editor

Recently Published Books

Legal Aspects of Public Procurement, Third Edition
Michael Flynn, Kirk W. Buffington and Richard Pennington

Third edition published 2020
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Taylor & Francis and NIGP: The Institute for Public Procurement

The right of Kirk W. Buffington, Michael Flynn and Richard Pennington to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

First edition published by the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing 2004
Second edition published by the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing 2007

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-0-367-47172-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04116-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Galliard
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Few tasks are as daunting as assimilating and explaining the legal aspects of public procurement. Still, that is the purpose of this book, which contains an amalgam of instructional text, statutory provisions, and relevant case studiesreal and hypothetical. While the basic structure of this revised edition remains the same, new chapters have been added to cover the legal aspects of competitive sealed proposals and contract administration. In addition, we revised the chapter on procurement of information technology to better relate to our increasingly digitalized world.

The vast amount of law available and applicable to procurement contracts requires that the book focuses on some of the most critical and applicable portions of the law of contracts with an emphasis on United States law. It has been used to teach Canadian procurement practitioners for many years, however. Because both U.S. and Canadian contract law have evolved from a common originEnglish common lawthe principles taught in this book are very similar in both countries.