Wade D. Koenecke

Wade focuses his practice in public procurement and government contracts litigation, administrative law, as well as complex civil and business litigation and appellate advocacy. He represents corporate clients, large and small, in all aspects of government contracting disputes. Wade has litigated numerous bid protests for a wide range of contract awards, including awards of a few hundred thousand dollars to multibillion dollar awards, both as a challenger and defender, in state court and before state administrative agencies. In addition, Wade represents and counsels clients in the cannabis industry, including in connection with cannabis licensing proceedings before state administrative agencies, challenges and appeals of cannabis license awards as well as regulatory compliance. He also has represented lawyers on ethics-related issues, including in proceedings before the Committee on Character and the Disciplinary Review Board.

As part of his litigation practice, Wade handles commercial and business disputes, contract disputes, and significant probate and real estate litigation matters, including disputes concerning land use and restrictive covenants. While Wade’s litigation experience encompasses a wide variety of disputes, he devotes a significant amount of his time to equity actions frequently involving pursuing and defending injunctions and actions for declaratory relief. He also has substantial experience with all aspects of appellate practice, including both defending and prosecuting appeals as well as stays of trial court or administrative agency decisions.

Wade also has extensive experience in matters pertaining to government records, including the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). He advises and successfully represents corporations, individuals and public entities in a wide range of disputes and compliance issues involving these laws. He has successfully defended and prosecuted numerous OPRA lawsuits and administrative actions throughout the state, including appeals.

Wade served as a law clerk to the Honorable Joseph L. Yannotti, New Jersey Appellate Division. While in law school, he was an editor on Rutgers University Law Review.

Representative Matters

• Cannabis License Award Challenge – We successfully overturned the State of New Jersey’s award of medicinal cannabis licenses. The New Jersey Department of Health, the state agency responsible for soliciting and awarding medicinal cannabis licenses, awarded a total of six licenses to six different vendors under which vendors may cultivate, manufacture and dispense medicinal cannabis products to qualified patients throughout the State. We represented an unsuccessful applicant in an appeal of those license awards to the New Jersey Appellate Division, arguing, among other things, that the license awards must be reversed both because the award procedures failed to adhere to tenets of administrative due process and also because the scoring of applicants was highly inconsistent and arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable. In a published opinion, the Appellate Division agreed with our arguments, finding that the award processes administered by the Department of Health were discordant with administrative due process and that its inconsistent scoring of applicants was manifestly arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable. The Court therefore overturned the Department of Health’s license award decisions and ordered further remand proceedings for the issuance of licenses. In the Matter of the Application for Medicinal Marijuana Alternative Treatment Center for Harvest of New Jersey, LLC, N.J. Super.  (App. Div. 2020)

• Contract Award Challenge  – We represented an unsuccessful bidder in a $6.5 billion contract for pharmacy benefits management services. We appealed the award decision by the New Jersey Division of Purchase and Property, arguing that the successful bidder included an improper pricing reservation in its bid proposal that rendered it fatally defective. In a published decision, the New Jersey Appellate Division agreed with our argument, finding the successful bidder’s pricing exception to be a material, nonwaivable deviation from the bid specifications. The Court therefore reversed the State’s contract award to the low bidder and ordered a rebid. (In the Matter of Request for Proposals #17DPP00144, 454 N.J. Super. 527 (App. Div. 2007))

Affiliations

• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton Young Professionals
• Mercer County Bar Association
• New Jersey State Bar Association

Education

• Rutgers University School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude
• Susquehanna University, B.S., summa cum laude

Bar Admissions

• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania

Court Admissions

• U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey