SBA’s Template for Joint Venture Agreements – Is it OK to Use for your 8(a) Joint Venture?
By Kimi Murakami The answer as to whether 8(a) firms can use the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (“SBA”) joint venture (“JV”) agreement template seems to depend on which SBA District Office your small business is governed by. Recently, some of our small business clients that are governed by the SBA’s Washington Metropolitan Area District Office received notice from their Business Opportunity Specialist (“BOS”) that the agency’s template for JV agreements would no longer be accepted. It is unclear whether this is true for all SBA District Offices or perhaps applicable only for this particular District . . . Read More
Attract and Retain Top Talent When You Cannot Compete Straight Up on Cash
One of the biggest challenges that a business owner may face is attracting and retaining top talent to help drive value and build their company. There are a variety of employee incentive compensation tools that can be used to attract and retain talent. Business owners need to consider: Which type of employee incentive tools will work best for that particular business owner’s company? To answer that question, a business owner needs to drill down on what goal is to be . . . Read More
The Importance of a Formal Document Retention Policy
By Brian Wilbourn As all of us are likely painfully aware, the volume of emails, correspondence and other documents that we generate and receive, whether we’re at home or at work, seem to grow at an ever-increasing rate. At home, we can often dispose of unwanted papers and files with little worry. In business, however—and for government contractors in particular—disposing of the wrong documents can have serious consequences. On the other hand, while contractors do not want to delete the . . . Read More
Employee Stock Ownership Plans: More Confusion for Veteran-Owned Small Businesses
My house, my rules. That was the approach seemingly taken by the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) when it crafted the regulations governing eligibility of Veteran-Owned and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (collectively, “VOSBs”) for the Veterans First Contracting Program (the “VA Program”). The VA appears to have patterned its rules off the Small Business Administration’s (“SBA”) rules for both the 8(a) Business Development Program and the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Concern (“SDVO SBC”) Program (the “SBA Program”), which has created a lot of confusion for veterans participating in both . . . Read More
The gTLD Explosion: Changes to Domain Names that All Businesses Should be Aware Of
The universe of domain names within the internet is undergoing radical change and businesses need to be aware of how to navigate in this new world. On June 20, 2011, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”), the international non-profit corporation that oversees the domain name system in the internet, approved the launch of its new generic top-level domains (“gTLD”) program dramatically expanding the existing gTLD system. gTLDs are the extensions (i.e., letters or words) that come to the right of the “dot” in a . . . Read More
Attorney-Client Privilege Protects Against Production of Internal Investigations of Fraud
By Katie Flood If you have been worrying about a potential issue related to an audit or False Claims Act (FCA) complaint, but have been nervous to proceed with an internal investigation in case those results should come back damning and later be disclosed a court case, there is good news from the DC Circuit. In a petition filed in the case In re Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc., DC Circuit No. 14-5055 (June 27, 2014), the DC Circuit overturned the . . . Read More
Be more. Do more. Advancing the Missions of Others through Community Service
By Kimi Murakami What can you do to give back to the community? What do you have to offer others? Law firms with a conscious, like PilieroMazza, encourage their employees to ask themselves these questions and to participate in giving back to their communities through pro bono services, financial donations, participation of their time and other resources to causes that they believe in. The platforms for giving back to the community take on a variety of forms at PilieroMazza. Finding . . . Read More
It’s Not Just About Being Disadvantaged: An Overview of the SBA’s Potential for Success Requirement for 8(a) Program Entry
Gaining entry to the Small Business Administration’s (“SBA”) 8(a) Business Development Program (the “8(a) Program”) is not just about proving a social and economic disadvantage. If you are a small business owner thinking about applying to the 8(a) Program, there is another eligibility requirement you need to understand: potential for success. A business applying for 8(a) status must possess reasonable prospects for success competing in the private sector before it can be admitted to the 8(a) Program. What does that . . . Read More
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Institute a Moratorium
By Nichole DeVries On May 7, 2014, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued Directive 2014-01, instituting a five-year moratorium on the OFCCP enforcement over TRICARE subcontractors. The moratorium applies to health care entities that participate in TRICARE as subcontractors under a prime contract between the Department of Defense (DOD) TRICARE Management Activity and one of the prime contractors providing managed-care contractors. Why would OFCCP stop auditing TRICARE subcontractors? According to OFCCP, there is a “difference in understanding” . . . Read More
Strategic Tips for Approaching Lenders and How to Choose the Right One
For those small businesses that are looking to obtain debt financing or to refinance existing debt, there are some strategic planning tips to consider in approaching and selecting a potential lender. As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. With lenders, this first impression is all-important. Failing to make a good one can be the difference between a lender making or not making a loan. And, this first impression will also significantly influence the . . . Read More