TRICIA BELL, an associate in Taft's Dayton office, practices in the area of Government Contracts Law. She focuses her practice on federal, state, and local government contract issues. Tricia assists clients with responding to solicitations, negotiating contracts and subcontracts, and maintaining compliance with the statutory and contractual provisions of the government contract. She also provides counsel on bid protests and claims before state and federal courts and boards of contract appeals.

Prior to joining Taft, Tricia worked at the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, the agency charged with maintaining the business infrastructure for state agencies, boards, and commissions. She provided general counsel services to the director’s office, the chief information officer (including IT procurement, infrastructure, and telecommunications), and the enterprise general services division (including procurement, federal/state surplus and risk management). Specifically, Tricia concentrated on drafting, reviewing and negotiating state of Ohio procurement contracts, including state term schedules, state supply and service solicitations (invitations to bid, requests for quotes, requests for proposals, and requests for information), and information technology-related agreements.

Before working for the state, Tricia was an attorney at a Columbus law firm, where she worked on state and local government issues. In this regard, Tricia has broad experience counseling public and private entities regarding competitive bidding, land acquisition, ethics, public records and zoning.