Grant Administration & USDA Programs

Counsel to organizations that receive and administer federal awards. We work through the full life of a grant: the terms of the award itself, the compliance framework governing how the money may be spent, the agreements that pass it to subrecipients, and the reporting and closeout that end it cleanly.

Begin a conversation What the work covers

Scope

Five parts of one award.

Award Review & Acceptance

Terms and Conditions · Program Rules · Match Requirements

An award arrives as a stack of incorporated documents, and the obligations tend to live in the ones nobody prints. We read the notice of award against the program rules and the Uniform Guidance, identify the cost share, period of performance, and prior-approval traps before anything is spent, and set out what the award actually commits the organization to do.

Compliance Frameworks

2 CFR 200 · Procurement Standards · Allowable Costs · Internal Controls

Compliance is a system, not a memo. We put in place the written policies a federal award requires: procurement standards, cost allowability, time and effort documentation, conflict of interest rules, and internal controls a monitor or an auditor can actually follow. Written before the spending starts, they cost a fraction of what they cost afterward.

Subrecipient & Contractor Agreements

Pass-Through Obligations · Risk Assessment · Monitoring

Passing federal money down does not pass the responsibility with it. We draft subaward agreements that flow the required terms through correctly, distinguish a subrecipient from a contractor where that difference changes everything, and build the risk assessment and monitoring a pass-through entity is required to perform.

Reporting, Audits & Findings

Performance and Financial Reporting · Single Audit · Corrective Action

Reports and audits are where a program's record is made. We keep reporting consistent with what the award requires, prepare the organization for a single audit, and respond to monitoring findings and questioned costs with corrective action rather than argument. A finding answered well is closed. One answered defensively is not.

Program & Entity Structure

Entity Formation · Governance · Registrations · Closeout

The organization holding an award has to be built to hold it. We form and structure the entity, put governance in place that satisfies both the program and the board, keep the federal registrations current, and carry the award through closeout so the file is complete before anyone comes looking for it.

Federal money arrives with its rules already attached.

Approach

Compliance built before it is needed.

Grant compliance is usually addressed in the wrong order. The award is accepted, the program starts, the money moves, and the policies get written the week a monitoring visit is scheduled. By then the record is whatever it is. Questioned costs, disallowed expenses, and repayment demands are rarely the result of anyone misusing funds. They are the result of documentation that was never created at the time.

We work at the front of that. The award terms are read before the first dollar is spent, and the policies exist before the transactions they govern. It is less interesting work than defending a finding, and it costs a fraction as much.

Because the practice stays small, the counsel who read your award is the one still there when a subrecipient underperforms or an auditor asks how a cost came to be treated as allowable. Grant files are cumulative, and the reasoning behind a decision made in year one is what answers the question raised in year four.

Who This Serves

Organizations answerable for public money.

First-Time Recipients

An organization that has just won its first federal award and now carries obligations it did not have last month. The gap between the program plan and the compliance framework is where the whole risk sits.

Pass-Through Entities

Recipients distributing funds to subrecipients, where responsibility for the money flows downward and accountability for it flows back up at the same time.

Programs Under Review

A monitoring visit, an audit finding, or questioned costs. At that point what matters is the record, and how well it is explained.

Questions

What recipients ask first.

What is the Uniform Guidance?

It is the federal rulebook for grants, found at 2 CFR Part 200, and it governs almost everything about how an award may be administered: which costs are allowable, how goods and services must be procured, what records have to be kept, and when an audit is required. Agency program rules sit on top of it, and the award's own terms sit on top of those.

What is the difference between a subrecipient and a contractor?

A subrecipient carries out part of the federal program and takes on compliance obligations along with the money. A contractor sells goods or services in an ordinary commercial transaction. The distinction is made on substance rather than on what the agreement is titled, and getting it wrong changes what you must flow down and what you must monitor.

When does a single audit apply?

It is triggered by the amount of federal money an organization expends in a fiscal year rather than by the number of awards it holds. Organizations crossing the threshold for the first time are often the least prepared, because the requirement follows spending they never thought of as cumulative.

We already received a finding. Is it too late for counsel?

No. A finding is a process, not a verdict. What determines the outcome is the quality of the response: documentation that supports the cost, a corrective action plan that is specific and real, and a record showing the problem was addressed rather than argued with.

Do you only handle USDA programs?

USDA programs are a particular focus, but the framework governing them is the same one that governs federal awards generally. The program rules change from agency to agency. The compliance architecture underneath them does not.

Where is Lake Legal licensed to practice?

Ryan Lake is licensed to practice in Colorado and the firm is based in Denver. Federal grant requirements apply regardless of the state a recipient sits in, and a matter that turns on another jurisdiction's law is handled together with counsel admitted there.

Begin a conversation

We would welcome hearing from you.

We work with a select number of organizations over the long term. If you are facing a situation where discretion, structure, and experienced counsel matter, reach out.

inquiries@lakelegal.co Meet your counsel

Denver, Colorado • By appointment