As the Acquisition Fellow of The Coalition for Common Sense in Government Procurement, Rob Burton provides advice and support for the Coalition’s procurement policy positions and supports a wide range of Coalition activities, including conferences and training events. Rob is the founder of Burton Acquisition and Expert Witness Services LLC and focuses his consulting practice on government affairs support, collaborating with contractors and nonprofit associations on acquisition reform and policy initiatives. Rob also serves as an expert witness on procurement issues in federal and state court cases and arbitrations.
Rob is a retired partner with the Government Contacts Group at Crowell & Moring, an international law firm headquartered in Washington, DC. At Crowell & Moring, he represented large and small government contractors, assisting them with their marketing strategies for selling to the federal government and avoiding litigation by resolving contract disputes at the agency level. He also successfully advocated for changes in procurement regulations and policies to improve the federal acquisition system.
Prior to his private sector career, Rob served in the Executive Office of the President as the Acting and Deputy Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), the nation’s top career federal procurement official. At OFPP, he served as the principal spokesperson for government-wide acquisition initiatives. Additionally, he chaired the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, and the Cost Accounting Standards Board. Before leading OFPP, Rob spent over 20 years as a senior acquisition attorney with the Department of Defense.
Rob is a Fellow of the National Contract Management Association and the National Academy of Public Administration. He serves on the Advisory Board of the George Mason University Baroni Center for Government Contracting and is a Director of the Procurement Round Table. He is also a member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Public Contract Law.
Rob is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and the College of William & Mary.