Ideally, your attorney is on speed-dial for routine questions so you can get them answered quickly and clearly. For questions specific to public contracting, legal advice is strongly recommended in the following situations:

• When preparing or updating your organization’s Local Rules. These rules establish an internal policy for contracting and should be clearly written so they can be easily followed. There also are several ways to tailor them to your organization while still complying with the law. Also, laws change periodically, so a review and update of your Local Rules is recommended at least every five (5) years or so.

• When considering a contract for something you have never done before; want to do in a new way; or which is large (for you) or unusually complex. Requirements for construction contracts in particular (“public improvements” or “public works”) substantially increase in complexity with the size of the contract (and thus invite more risk). 

• Anytime you plan to put a contract out for competitive bids. The best time to invest your legal dollars is when drafting the solicitation (invitation to bid/request for proposals). A properly drafted solicitation not only helps the contracting process proceed smoothly, it can protect your organization from protests, or at least help you resolve them quickly.

• When a bid or proposal protest has been filed or is likely to be filed.

• When preparing a contract. You should have a written contract of some kind for every vendor or contractor you do business with. In many cases the contractor will propose a contract. This can work, but always have your attorney review it to make sure it includes all the needed protections for your organization. If you are supplying the contract (strongly recommended for contracts of substantial size), in most cases your attorney can prepare one more quickly and efficiently (and at less cost) than if he or she is reviewing and revising one you prepared yourself or borrowed from someone else. 
• Anytime you have questions. If you’re not sure what you’re doing, don’t feel like you have to go it alone. It’s better to ask a dumb question (it probably isn’t as dumb as you think it is) and avoid a mistake than to wing it and try to clean up mistakes later.