Brittany Whitesell Biles ("Britt Biles")

Pandemic-program role: SBA's General Counsel during the peak of PPP/EIDL rulemaking; she supervised the drafting of the PPP regulations and the design of the loan-review and forgiveness process.
Institution · office: SBA · Office of the General Counsel · Type: political
Tenure (relief-relevant): appointed General Counsel July 16, 2020; departed ~January 2021 with the change of administration.

The job (role mechanics)

Level / appointment: SBA General Counsel; the position is statutorily PAS at Executive Schedule Level IV (5 U.S.C. 5315). She was named GC by an SBA appointment press release dated July 16, 2020 and her bios call her the agency's third-highest-ranking official; whether she was Senate-confirmed vs. serving in an acting/appointed capacity in 2020 is not stated in first-party sources.
Reports to: The SBA Administrator (Jovita Carranza).
Core responsibility: Chief legal officer — "principal legal advisor to the Administrator on the CARES Act," led the ~140-person Office of General Counsel, supervised drafting of the PPP regulations and guidance, and designed key parts of the loan-review and forgiveness process (the IFRs themselves were Administrator-signed).
Pay: Executive Schedule Level IV ≈ $172,500 (2021 statutory rate; ~$158,500 payable under the 2021 freeze) for the GC position. (ProPublica lists $145,000 for her earlier White House Associate Counsel role, not the SBA GC job.) Sources: Ex Pdf 6009Adaafdb86580 (original: opm.gov · stored capture); Pay: Executive Schedule Level IV ≈ $172,500 2021 statutory rate; ~$158,500 payable under the 2021 freeze for... (original: projects.propublica.org · stored capture).
Expectations / mandate: Advise the Administrator on the CARES Act, supervise PPP rulemaking/guidance and the forgiveness/loan-review design, build data-sharing for fraud investigation, and lead SBA's responses to GAO, the OIG, congressional oversight, and the PRAC.
Tenure norm: Serves at the pleasure of the President (political).

Who they are

Brittany Whitesell Biles, professionally "Britt Biles," is a white-collar and securities-enforcement litigator who served as SBA's chief legal officer during the second half of 2020. She is a Trump-administration political appointee; ProPublica's "Trump Town" records her earlier White House role and an approved ethics waiver.¹²

Education

J.D., Duke University School of Law (magna cum laude; Order of the Coif; Class of 2005); B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.³⁴

Career before the pandemic

She clerked for Judge Julia Smith Gibbons of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, then practiced high-end commercial litigation and white-collar/enforcement defense in private firms (her bios name only "a global law firm" and "a Washington, D.C. litigation boutique"). She was Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel in the SEC's Division of Enforcement (insider trading, cybersecurity, accounting fraud, FCPA, broker-dealer matters; multiple Division awards), and then Special Assistant to the President and Associate White House Counsel, advising on financial regulation and serving as legal liaison to Treasury, DOT, HUD, and the SEC/FTC/CFPB.³⁴⁵

Role in the pandemic relief programs

As General Counsel she led the ~140-person Office of General Counsel and, by her own account, was "the principal legal advisor to the Administrator on the CARES Act," supervised "the drafting of regulations and guidance that implemented the Paycheck Protection Program," and "designed key aspects of the loan review and forgiveness process." She built data-sharing agreements to support fraud investigation/prosecution and led SBA's responses to GAO, the OIG, congressional oversight, the House Select Subcommittee, and the PRAC.⁴³ She did not personally sign the PPP Federal Register rules. The signer of record on the late-2020/Jan-2021 PPP interim final rules is Administrator Jovita Carranza (jointly with Treasury on co-issued rules), and "General Counsel" appears on none of them.⁶⁷

Documents written or signed

The only contemporaneous federal document tying her by name is as a recipient: SBA OIG Report 21-02 (Oct. 28, 2020) cc's "Brittany Biles, General Counsel."⁸ The PPP rules were developed by OGC under her supervision, but SBA does not publish individual drafters, so there is no public document with her signature on substantive PPP work.

Career after / where they are now

She left SBA at the change of administration (~Jan. 2021) and joined Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP as a partner in the white-collar/investigations and business-litigation group in Washington, D.C. (announced Dec. 1, 2021), where she became a visible commentator on PPP/COVID-relief fraud enforcement.⁹³

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

Sources (first-party)

ProPublica "Trump Town," entry "Brittany W. Biles" (White House Office, "Associate Counsel to the President," $145,000, Ethics Waiver). Pay: Executive Schedule Level IV ≈ $172,500 2021 statutory rate; ~$158,500 payable under the 2021 freeze for... (original: projects.propublica.org · stored capture) ↩
SBA appointment press release, "SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza Appoints Senior Executives," July 16, 2020 (names "Brittany Biles, General Counsel"). SBA appointment press release, "SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza Appoints Senior Executives," July 16, 2020 names "B... (original: sba.gov · stored capture) ↩
Womble Bond Dickinson attorney bio, "Britt Biles." Womble Bond Dickinson attorney bio, "Britt Biles." (original: womblebonddickinson.com · stored capture) (link now dead; copy taken from the Internet Archive, 11 November 2024) ↩
Federalist Society contributor bio, "Britt Biles" (clerkship; SEC; White House; SBA). Federalist Society contributor bio, "Britt Biles" clerkship; SEC; White House; SBA (original: fedsoc.org · stored capture) ↩
Trump White House, July 1, 2019 Annual Report to Congress on White House Personnel (lists Brittany W. Biles). Report - July 1 2019 Report Final Pdf 1683786Ea998C0C1 (original: trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov · stored capture) ↩
Federal Register, PPP Second Draw IFR, 86 FR 3712 (Jan. 14, 2021), signed "Jovita Carranza, Administrator." Federal Register / GPO, SVOG funding notice, 86 FR 16270 Mar. 26, 2021, FR Doc. 2021-06338 — signature "Barbara E. Ca... (original: federalregister.gov) ↩
Federal Register, PPP Additional Revisions to Loan Forgiveness/Loan Review IFRs, 85 FR 66214 (Oct. 19, 2020), signed "Jovita Carranza, Administrator" and Treasury's Michael Faulkender. Federal Register, PPP Additional Revisions to Loan Forgiveness/Loan Review IFRs, 85 FR 66214 Oct. 19, 2020, signed "J... (original: federalregister.gov · stored capture) ↩
SBA OIG Report 21-02, "Inspection of SBA's Initial Disaster Assistance Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic" (Oct. 28, 2020), distribution list "Brittany Biles, General Counsel." Report - Sba Oig Report 21 02 508 1 Pdf Ca396D7A5B34246B (original: sba.gov · stored capture) (link now dead; copy taken from the Internet Archive, 11 December 2025) ↩
Womble Bond Dickinson lateral-hire announcement (Dec. 1, 2021) with her education and career summary. Womble Bond Dickinson lateral-hire announcement Dec. 1, 2021 with her education and career summary (original: generalcounselnews.com) ↩