The Small Business Council of America (SBCA) presented Husch Blackwell's Russell Orban with a Special Appreciation Award on May 4. The award honors former congressional staff members whose work and efforts have made a difference in the lives of small business owners and employees.
The SBCA strives to keep small business a vital segment of the nation's economy by providing a voice in Washington to enact favorable federal tax and employee benefits laws for small businesses and their owners. The SBCA has only granted this award four times in the last 28 years.
Orban has promoted small business efforts for decades. Prior to joining the firm, he was General Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Small Business. Prior to that, he worked for the Office of the Chief Counsel for Advocacy, Small Business Administration as Assistant Chief Counsel. In addition, Orban previously worked for the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Small Business as a Subcommittee Staff Director. In his role there he led the Small Business Committee's oversight of the Regulatory Flexibility Act and the Paperwork Reduction Act implementation and authored the Congressional five-year report on the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Orban also served as lead counsel for the reauthorization of the government's highly successful Small Business Innovation Research program in 1992, which doubled the size of the program and benefited thousands of small, high-tech businesses.
Orban recently joined the firm's Washington, D.C., office as Of Counsel and concentrates his work in the areas of Governmental Affairs and Government Contracts law.