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If you like contracts and any and all opportunities to drop the phrase “there's an app for that,” then today is your lucky day. The Government Contracts Group at the law firm Crowell & Moring has a launched a new GovCon Legal Resource Center mobile app that's available for iOS and Android users.

Ideally the app is meant to serve as a one-stop shop for contract-related information, incorporating features such as news and analysis, a find-a-lawyer search tool and an interactive guide meant to aid users in filing their bid protests on time.

David Robbins, a partner in the Government Contracts Group, said that the app grew out of the positive reception to the practice's “Fastest Five Minutes” podcasting series (also included in the app), which provides commentary on developments in the world of government contracts. Listeners of that series enjoyed having a quick-hit resource that was available at their convenience.

“If the in-house counsel really are as busy as they're telling us they are, as we see they are, then we need to find new ways to reach them and this [app] is one of the easiest,” Robbins said.

Aside from inserting the firm into the busy schedules of potential and ongoing clients alike, the app also allows Crowell to put faces to the names in its stable of 60 government contract lawyers. Ongoing video alerts will build on the types of discussions found in the podcast series.

According to Robbins, each video is relatively quick to produce—shooting time is budgeted at an hour—and could help introduce some of the more introverted members of their staff to a new group of people.

“It's almost a democratizing force, right? [In] just a video medium, they're forced to get to know somebody, they're forced to talk and share their knowledge. It just gives everybody a chance to get to know and feel like they've interacted with folks,” Robbins said.

He thinks that clients' desire for easily accessible legal resources that can conform to their own busy schedules will push Crowell and other law firms to continue developing new apps that deliver customized content.

For the GovCon Legal Resource Center app specifically, Robbins would like to eventually incorporate additional video content that can be used to provide on-the-job training for clients working in the contract space.

“I'd like to see this move from sort of the universal resource and marketing platform to something that is also core to the business and the exchanges with us and our clients,” Robbins said.