Size & Status Protests: Eligibility, Bases & Processes

In today’s competitive government contracting market, small business eligibility gives contractors a huge leg up. As more and more contracts are set aside for small, 8(a), HUBZone, veteran-owned and woman-owned companies, eligibility can be the key to success. Small business eligibility can be leveraged to secure access to contracts that other non-eligible competitors can’t access. But it also creates additional grounds for competitors to protest a contractor’s set-aside contract award. Specifically, competitors can challenge a contractor’s eligibility to receive contract awards through the use of size and status protests.

In this webinar (after a refresher on the eligibility requirements of various small business programs), you will learn about these size and status protests. We will discuss how these protests are made, the common bases supporting them, and the process contractors go through – whether asserting or defending – after a protest has been filed.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• The differences between bid protests and size and status protests.

• Eligibility criteria for small, 8(a), HUBZone, VOSB/SDVOSB, and WOSB/EDWOSB programs.

• The common bases for size and status protests, including affiliation and control/ownership issues.

• The size and status protest from both a protestor and a defending contractor’s point of view.

Instructor:  MARIA PANICHELLI, Esq., partner at McCarter & English

Maria L. Panichelli, Esq. is a partner in the Government Contracts and Global Trade practice group at the law firm of McCarter & English.  She focuses her practice exclusively on federal contracts, assisting clients through every stage of the procurement process.  Her practice includes performance and compliance counseling, asserting and defending bid and size/status protests, REAs, claims and CDA claim appeals and litigation, federal subcontracting, and small business procurement.  Maria provides comprehensive legal counseling that allows her clients to successfully navigate the complicated legal requirements related to federal contracting while fulfilling their own business goals.  An active member of several federal contracting associations, Maria is a frequent lecturer at agency, government contracting, and small business conferences and works closely with several Procurement Technical Assistance Centers to provide educational content for contractors.