On February 9, 2016, John Klein and Christine Williams spoke about the upcoming Small Business Administration regulation changes to a crowd of around 500 or so people at the National 8(a) Conference in Orlando, Florida.
John Klein is the Associate General Counsel of the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) who essentially writes and interprets the SBA regulations and is the suspension and debarment attorney for the agency. Christine Williams is a partner with Davis Wright Tremaine who concentrates her practice on Government Contracting. During their discussion, John and Christine went off-script in responding to what audience members requested, resulting in very positive feedback.
These changes are some of the most fundamental changes in regulations governing the SBA that have come out in quite some time.
They affect size standards with regards to affiliation, how to calculate percentage of required performance on a contract, how materials do or do not count towards price of the contract and percentage of required performance, and many more, including ties to the Mentor-Protégé program changes and how those changes interact. Although the regulations are not through the internal Governmental process, John was able to speak, informally, about what he thought would likely take hold, and Christine then translated the regulations into operational functions for SBA firms.
John and Christine have spoken, and often times lively and respectfully debated, about regulations that affect small businesses. John and Christine are often a crowd favorite because of the in-depth knowledge they present and the dynamic debates. Despite these debates, Christine and John have a deep respect for each other and enjoy their panels together.
