Michael A. Schwartz Quoted in The Times-Picayune Article, 'Does $5M Airport Plumbing Contract Align With Spirit of DBE Program?'
Michael A. Schwartz, a partner and co-chair of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Department of Pepper Hamilton, was quoted in the March 31, 2016 Times-Picayune article, "Does $5M Airport Plumbing Contract Align With Spirit of DBE Program?"
Michael Schwartz, an attorney for Pepper Hamilton in Philadelphia and a former federal prosecutor with expertise in DBE law, said mentorship relationships are allowed, but the mentor can't perform all of the functions. "The key federal concept, assuming there is federal money involved, is that any DBE for which ultimately credit is being given toward the DBE goals must perform what's called a commercially useful function," Schwartz said.
Bigger contractors will work with DBEs to build their capacity, even using joint checking accounts when a company doesn't have significant financial experience. That's OK, he said, "as long as at the end of the day, the DBE is actually performing commercially useful work."
Schwartz said it's not a problem that the owner is an executive who hires people with the knowledge to perform the work. "As long as he's the real owner, there's nothing wrong with hiring the expertise, as long as they're really his employees, and they're really working at his direction and not someone else's," he said.
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