Washington, D.C
The law firm of Barton Baker Thomas & Tolle LLP of McLean, Virginia announce recently that one of its partners, Ralph C. Thomas III, was recently admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and is now an English Solicitor, as well as an American Attorney at Law. After passing a three-part bar examination and meeting other requirements, Thomas was formally admitted to the Bar at a ceremony on September 21, 2009 at Chancery Hall in London, England, the site of the prestigious Law Society of England and Wales.
Thomas practices Government Contracts Law and focuses his practice on legal issues affecting small businesses in the federal procurement arena. He assists small, mid-sized, and large businesses in structuring teaming arrangements, such as joint ventures, prime and subcontractor agreements and formal mentor protégé relationships. He represents companies in bid protests before the General Accountability Office (GAO), size protests before the Small Business Administration (SBA), SBA certification and recertification appeals, federal procurement process issues, Inspector General (IG) investigations, and dispute resolution with federal agencies. Thomas regularly counsels major corporations on federal small business compliance issues.
Prior to re-entering private practice in 2005, Thomas served as the Associate Administrator for Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization at NASA Headquarters during 1992-2005. Under his direction, NASA’s contract and subcontract award dollars to small, disadvantaged, and women-owned businesses grew to record levels for all such groups.
During such time he received more than 20 major awards from government and industry, including the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive, an honor only given to one percent of the more than 6000 Federal government senior executives. He also received the “Special Honor Award” from the World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises, an international organization based in India representing small businesses in 113 countries, and was named “Man of the Year” by Minority Enterprise Magazine and “Minority Business Enterprise Advocate of the Year” by Asian Entrepreneur Magazine.
“What I hope to do now that I am a member of the Bar in England and Wales is to expand my client base to include international companies,” Thomas said. “As an English Solicitor, it will be easier for me to work with firms located in countries that follow the British legal system, i.e., India, Canada, Hong Kong, where many of the emerging small high tech businesses are. My diverse international practice should give these firms a certain comfort level when I’m working for them,” he added.
Thomas is a graduate of Harvard Law School and an “Honors” graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.
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