A bid in a public tender can determine whether an entire project goes ahead. When a tender committee disqualifies a bid, assigns an inexplicable quality score, or awards a contract to a competitor while overlooking a material defect, the window for action may be very short. A petition filed too late, a carelessly drafted objection or an approach made only after the contract has been executed can lead to an outcome that is difficult to reverse.
Effective representation in tender and procurement matters requires knowing when to intervene, how to frame the argument and when urgent action is needed before the process becomes irreversible.
The firm is among the leading practices in Israel in administrative law and provides comprehensive representation in complex tender disputes. It acts for bidders, private companies, corporations, local authorities and public bodies in proceedings concerning public and private tenders, infrastructure tenders, government contracting and disputes of significant financial and public scale — including some of the largest and most complex infrastructure procurements in Israel.
Major tenders, interim relief and material defects
The firm is led by Ilan Bombach, one of Israel's leading litigators, with more than 30 years in practice and many hundreds of appearances before the Supreme Court. His extensive experience in administrative and public law is particularly relevant in tender disputes, where procedural rules, public-law duties and urgent litigation frequently intersect.
In tender matters, a successful petition requires three things together: command of tender law, an understanding of how a tenders committee works from the inside, and the ability to recognise when a defect that appears technical becomes a material one capable of invalidating the entire process. Three decades of administrative litigation are what make that distinction possible quickly, while the clock is running.
Beyond his work in the courts, Ilan Bombach has held several public offices that give him first-hand familiarity with decision-making in public bodies, including Deputy Chair of the Central Elections Committee, acting head of the National Road Safety Authority, and membership of the advisory committee for judicial appointments. Having served on decision-making bodies himself, he is closely familiar with their institutional processes, including which arguments are likely to carry weight before a tender committee and which may be regarded as an attempt to second-guess professional discretion.
Personal, immediate involvement
In tender law, decisions are made in an unusually short time. From the moment a committee disqualifies a bid, awards the contract to a competitor, or adopts a problematic reading of the tender conditions, there may be only days before the process becomes irreversible. Ilan Bombach personally leads the matter from the first review of the tender documents, through submissions to the committee, objections and requests for disclosure, to administrative petitions and applications for interim orders.
What we handle
- Advising bidders throughout the tender process: advice on threshold requirements, analysis of tender documents, risk identification and strategy.
- Disqualification of bids and threshold conditions: representation in appeals and petitions against wrongful disqualification, technical defects that become material, missing documents and bidder eligibility.
- Quality scoring and committee discretion: disputes over the reasonableness of scoring, professional opinions, and questions of equality and fairness between bidders.
- Administrative petitions in tender matters: representation before the Administrative Affairs Courts and the Supreme Court in petitions to set aside an award, invalidate a tender or change its conditions.
- Interim relief and urgent proceedings: interim orders, preventing execution of a contract with a winning bidder, and suspending the award or performance of a contract pending determination.
- Infrastructure tenders and large-scale public contracting: support in procurements of significant economic scale in infrastructure, construction, transport and public services.
