Insights

Washington – August 15, 2024: The 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 42 Crowell & Moring lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 29 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.”

Washington – August 17, 2023: The 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 47 firm lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 41 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.”

On February 24, 2025, the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a “Day One” memo outlining SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler’s priorities. 

On December 17, 2024, the Small Business Administration (SBA) published a final rule amending multiple aspects of all of the SBA’s small business size and status programs.  Among other notable changes, SBA (1) introduced a new rule that changes the impact of a recertification as other than small or as other than the relevant small business status following a merger or acquisition, and (2) introduced a standardized set of permissible negative controls for minority shareholders in all types of small businesses, thereby significantly expanding the controls investors may have in service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs), women-owned small businesses (WOSBs), and participants in the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program. 

On January 15, 2025, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council issued a Proposed Rule that would implement changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) rules as required by the 2022 Preventing Organizational Conflicts of Interest in Federal Acquisition Act (P.L. 117-324).  Comments on the Proposed Rule are due on March 17, 2025.  (Note that pursuant to President Trump’s January 20, 2025 “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review” Executive Order, the Proposed Rule is subject to further review, which may result in revisions and an extension of the 60-day comment period.)

When an acquisition involves an entity that currently claims (or even previously claimed) small business size and/or status, there are additional factors that must be considered. We will address the impact that small business status can have on diligence; the types of representations, certifications, warranties, covenants, etc. that you might expect to see used; implications for a small business target if, post-acquisition, the entity will no longer be able to claim small business size and/or status; and common post-close activities required of a small business that, post-acquisition, can no longer claim small business size and/or status.

Crowell & Moring’s “All Things Protest” podcast keeps you up to date on major trends in bid protest litigation, key developments in high-profile cases, and best practices in state and federal procurement. In this episode, host Olivia Lynch is joined by Michael Samuels to discuss a recent decision from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Hearings and Appeals on the ostensible subcontractor rule as well as a recent Government Accountability Office decision sustaining a protest of an agency solicitation that required a joint venture competing for the award, as opposed to the individual members of the joint venture, to hold a top secret facility clearance.  

Crowell & Moring’s “All Things Protest” podcast keeps you up to date on major trends in bid protest litigation, key developments in high-profile cases, and best practices in state and federal procurement. In this episode, hosts Olivia Lynch and Rob Sneckenberg are joined by colleague Michael Samuels to discuss recent developments in GAO’s Key Personnel case law.