We understand that our advice regarding the proper use of a contractor's or A/E's legal name, disseminated December 9, 2009,  has resulted in significant concerns regarding our contract approval process. We apologize for any inconvenience this advice may have caused to you or your contractors or A/E's. Further, we are retracting the advice, and would like to clarify our approval policy.

To the extent that a contractor or A/E is reasonably identifiable in the documentation submitted for contract approval, we will not require correction of documentation that contains minor or immaterial discrepancies in the name. For example, a contractor may still be reasonably identifiable even if the documentation contains discrepancies such as misspellings, the use of common abbreviations and the alteration or omission of punctuation. In the event that our review reveals a material discrepancy in the name(s) used, we will flag this for review by the individual who submitted the contract to us for approval. This approval policy applies to contracts, bid bonds and any checklist items submitted with approval requests.

We appreciate your feedback on this topic and hope that the above clarification will be helpful to you. If you have concerns or questions about this policy, please feel free to contact any of us in Business Counsel. As always, if specific questions about a given contract or checklist item arise in the future, we also welcome the opportunity to discuss those.