The $531M Small Business: Counseling Contractors and Investors Through SBA’s Size Standards Overhaul

Eric S. Crusius, Partner | Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

Eric S. Crusius is a regulatory attorney at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP whose practice covers government contract and grant matters, including bid protests, claims and disputes, and compliance issues. When SBA proposed broad changes to small business size standards in August 2026, he was quoted on the proposal by Law360 and by Federal News Network. He has written on SBA’s proposed regulations signaling changes to multiple small business programs for Pratt’s Government Contracting Law Report, and he has spoken at the National 8(a) Association’s National Small Business Conference and at The National 8(a) Small Business Conference. He counsels clients on subcontracting and teaming agreements, domestic preferences, export controls, cybersecurity, and compliance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation, grant regulations, and agency supplements such as the DFARS.

• Education & Credentials

Eric earned his JD from Hofstra University School of Law and his BA in Social Science, with honors, from Hofstra University. He is admitted in New York and Virginia. He is also admitted before the US Supreme Court, the US Court of Federal Claims, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

• Recognition & Leadership

Chambers USA recognizes Eric as a Leader in Government Contracts for 2025 and 2026, and in Government Contracts: Cybersecurity for 2026, on a USA-Nationwide basis. Who’s Who Legal listed him in Government Contracts in 2024, and Legal 500 United States recommended him in 2026 for Dispute Resolution: General Commercial Disputes — Mid-market ($250-500m). He was named a Top Author in the Government Contracts industry in the JD Supra Reader’s Choice Awards in 2018, 2020, and 2024, and a Rising Star in Government Contracts by Washington, DC Super Lawyers from 2013 to 2015 and by Virginia Super Lawyers from 2012 to 2015. Within the American Bar Association’s Section of Public Contract Law he serves as Conference Director of the Virtual Speaker Series and as Co-Chair of both the Employment Safety & Labor Committee and the Legislative and Regulatory Coordinating Committee.

• Professional Involvement

Eric sits on the Programs Committee of the Small and Emerging Contractor Advisory Forum and is a member of the Professional Services Council. He served as President of the NOVA Chapter of the National Contract Management Association from 2017 to 2018 and on the Law360 Government Contracts Editorial Advisory Board from 2018 to 2019. He speaks regularly on federal contracting developments, including Hot Topics in Federal Contracting at the NCMA World Congress 2026 and the NAPEX Annual 2026 Conference, and the FAR/DFARS Mid-Year Update 2026 for NCMA. He presented the myLawCLE webinar Defending Cyber-Fraud False Claims Act Actions Against Defense Contractors and Their PE Sponsors in August 2026. He contributes the Government Contractors chapter to the Practising Law Institute’s Corporate Compliance Answer Book and hosts the Regulatory Phishing podcast.

• Experience

Eric has prosecuted and intervened in numerous bid protests before the US Court of Federal Claims, the Government Accountability Office, boards of contract appeals, and other federal agencies, including a successful challenge of an approximately $190 million award on two separate protest grounds and a successful challenge to an agency’s corrective action and a prior adverse GAO decision. In a protest at the Court of Federal Claims he obtained a finding that the VA acted unlawfully in structuring a $4 billion program for sourcing and distributing medical supplies. He obtained a $3.3 million verdict in a complex government contracts trial against a large prime contractor, and he removed a company from the suspension and debarment list after guiding it through a significant compliance plan. He has guided mandatory disclosures that closed without further government inquiry, counseled contractors on emerging compliance issues including the Chinese technology ban and supply chain compliance, and advised companies on grant compliance and negotiation risk across federal agencies. His cybersecurity work spans CMMC, FedRAMP, agency-specific requirements at DOD, DHS, and VA, and the False Claims Act exposure that follows a breach.

Valarie Ney, Partner | Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

Valarie Ney is a partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in Washington, DC, whose practice centers on mergers and acquisitions along with cross-border, securities, and corporate governance matters. She works across the full range of M&A structures — private company acquisitions and dispositions, auctions, joint ventures, licensing transactions, public company mergers and spin-offs, going private transactions, special committee representations, and tender offers — and practices across industries that include government contracting, technology, healthcare, pharmaceutical, energy, and manufacturing. Her governance work covers disclosure, compliance, and governance questions arising under SEC regulations, stock exchange rules, and state corporate law.

• Education & Credentials

Valarie earned her JD from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2005, where she was a member of the Virginia Law Review, and her BA from Bowdoin College in 1999. She is admitted in the District of Columbia, New York, and Virginia.

• Recognition & Leadership

Valarie joined Hunton’s M&A team as a partner in the Washington, DC office in September 2023, a move covered by Law360, The Deal, and Bloomberg Law. Her designated areas of focus at the firm include Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity, Corporate Governance and Board Advisory, Capital Markets and Securities, International and Cross-Border Transactions, and Government Contracts.

• Professional Involvement

Valarie spoke on Mergers & Acquisitions 2024: Advanced Trends and Developments for the Practising Law Institute, and has presented to the Association of Corporate Counsel’s National Capital Region chapter on the risks and rewards of corporate activism and on M&A in the COVID era. She addressed the SOSi acquisition of STG at an ACG National Capital monthly meeting. Her published insights include the firm’s 2026 and 2025 M&A Outlooks, an analysis of the DOJ’s safe harbor for M&A transactions, a review of the Delaware court’s treatment of lost-premium claims against buyers, guidance on forming accounting firm alternative practice structures, and a year-in-review on federal certification and contracting requirements for colleges and universities.

• Experience

Valarie represented a NYSE-listed administrator of government health and human services programs in its $1.4 billion acquisition of a provider of medical disability examinations to the US Department of Veterans Affairs and its $400 million purchase of assets from a NYSE-listed aerospace and defense company. She represented a leading federal technology services firm acquiring a provider of technology, cyber, and data solutions to the defense industry, and a private equity buyer in a $100 million investment in a consulting firm serving large enterprises and governmental agencies. Her wider record includes a $6.3 billion healthcare insurance acquisition, a $4.2 billion biopharmaceutical acquisition, a $4.7 billion consortium acquisition of a NYSE-listed energy services company, a $1 billion private equity software sale, and spin-offs including one structured as a Reverse Morris Trust.

SESSION 1 – Winners and Losers Under SBA’s Proposed Size Standards Overhaul | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session examines SBA’s August 20, 2026 proposed rules (RIN 3245-AI67 and 91 Fed. Reg. 54096) that would consolidate roughly 1,000 industry-specific size standards into 338 and eliminate the size-standard ceiling — producing thresholds as high as $531 million for IT services. Attorneys will learn which industries gain or lose small business status, how the revised three-factor methodology works, and what the shifts mean for set-aside competition, affiliation analysis, and M&A strategy. Attendees leave with a working map of the rule’s winners and losers and a framework for advising contractors, investors, and small business program participants before any final rule issues.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – After the Overhaul: Protecting Small Business Status and Managing Bid, Compliance, and M&A Risk | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session translates the SBA’s size standards overhaul into practical counseling strategies for contractors, buyers, and investors. Using real-world scenarios, attorneys will assess how a client’s revised size status affects upcoming bids, set-aside eligibility, affiliation concerns, and pending or prospective transactions. The discussion will address what to do when a company moves from small to other-than-small status, how to approach size representations and recertification, when a transaction creates unexpected affiliation issues, and how to spot size-status problems before they become protest, enforcement, or deal-closing problems.