ATTACHMENT A
COUNTY OF ORANGE
OFFICE OF COUNTY COUNSEL
REQUEST FOR STATEMENTS OF QUALIFICATIONS
FOR SPECIAL COUNSEL FOR LEGAL ADVICE AND REPRESENTATION
IN THE AREA OF REAL PROPERTY
The County Counsel’s office of the County of Orange (“County Counsel”) is seeking Statements of Qualifications (“SOQ”) from attorneys and law firms to provide legal services to the Board of Supervisors for the County of Orange (“County”).
Any SOQ submitted must be received
by 5:00 p.m. on February 26, 2016.
It should be addressed to:
Leon J. Page
County Counsel
County of Orange
333 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Ste. 407
P.O. Box 1379
Santa Ana, California 92702-1379
Attention: Thomas A. Miller,
Supervising Deputy County Counsel
Details of the manner of submission, number of copies to be submitted, etc., are explained in sections IV and VI of this Request for SOQ below.
Preparation and submission of an SOQ by interested attorneys and firms will be at no cost or obligation to the County. County reserves the right to, at any time, abandon or terminate its efforts to contract for said services without obligation to any attorney or firm which responds to this Request for SOQ. SOQs and other materials submitted will become property of the County and will not be returned.
Questions and requests for clarification/interpretations related to this SOQ must be submitted in writing prior to twenty-four (24) hours before the deadline for submission of
SOQs to the attention of Thomas A. Miller, Supervising Deputy County Counsel, at the address listed above, or e-mail at .
I. INTRODUCTION
County Counsel is seeking qualified outside counsel to provide real property and related legal services to assist the County on an as-needed basis in real property matters, including, but not limited to, real estate transactions, leasing, licensing, title matters, real estate development, financing, acquisitions, dispositions, public-private partnerships, title insurance and survey, environmental matters, construction contracts, California Environmental Quality Act, and zoning and entitlement matters (“County Real Property Legal Services”). The attorney(s) or law firm(s) selected to provide the County Real Property Legal Services should be located in, or have significant experience in Orange County. County Counsel is seeking SOQs from qualified and responsible attorneys or law firms who are willing to enter into the County’s standard Legal Services Agreement (the form of which is attached hereto as Attachment E) and to perform the County Real Property Legal Services described herein. Interested attorneys or law firms may submit information requested in response to this Request for SOQ.
II. PURPOSE
The intent of this request for Statement of Qualifications is to enable County Counsel to recommend two attorneys or law firms for consideration by the Board of Supervisors for selection to provide the legal services required by the County in connection with the scope of services and/or County Real Property Legal Services described herein.
III. DESCRIPTION OF LEGAL SERVICES REQUIRED AND THE SHOWING OF QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED
The attorney(s) or law firm(s) will be required to provide the personnel and all necessary support and equipment, including computer hardware and software, sufficient and adequate to perform the services described herein. The firm will need to prepare written interim and final reports, updates, and summaries for each phase of work as requested by the assigned Deputy County Counsel.
In its SOQ, each attorney or firm shall demonstrate qualifications that shall include, but not be limited to, an understanding of any applicable federal and/or state laws in the area of law applicable to the County Real Property Legal Services.
The selected attorney(s) or law firm(s) will be required to perform all required legal services in the areas of law or County government or operations described above, including but not limited to any or all of the following services and others as directed by the assigned Deputy County Counsel (“Scope of Services”):
1. Perform all normal and customary duties required of special counsel in connection with the County Real Property Legal Services.
2. Advise County staff as to procedures, legality of documents, policy concerns, and legal implications concerning the County Real Property Legal Services.
3. Advise County regarding the requirements of real property law and other state and federal laws relevant to the County Real Property Legal Services.
4. Assist County in negotiation, drafting and implementation of contracts, correspondence, and related documents arising out of or related to the County Real Property Legal Services and/or to the applicable area of County operations.
5. Attend meetings of the Board of Supervisors and relevant staff meetings, as requested by County Counsel.
6. Prepare submissions, resolutions, notices, pleadings, and other legal documents necessary for the County Real Property Legal Services or the applicable area of County operations.
7. Provide representation in hearings, arbitrations, mediations, and any related litigation arising out of the County Real Property Legal Services or the applicable area of County operations.
IV. STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS (SOQ) SUBMITTAL REQUIREMENTS
Attorney(s) and law firm(s) qualified and interested in performing the tasks generally described above, are asked to submit the following information formatted into sections 1-7 as requested below. Failure to follow the required format may result in disqualification. The SOQ each attorney or firm submits is limited to 10 pages (excluding attachments). Resumes, copies of licenses/certifications, lists of clients, etc. may be appended to the SOQ and will not be included in the 10-page limit. No schedule of rates or fees will be due at this time, and inclusion of such information may result in no further consideration of the SOQ.
1. Submission of SOQs
One (1) original and nine (9) copies of the SOQ should be submitted in one envelope.
2. General Information
A General Information Sheet (Attachment A hereto) should be completed. The sheet must list a lead attorney who has primary responsibility for the work. Agreement terms will not permit substitution of lead attorneys without prior written approval of the County.
3. Qualifications of Personnel
Please provide a description of the qualifications of all professional personnel to perform work under an Agreement with the County, a resume for each professional, and a statement indicating to what extent or percent each will be assigned in performing the Scope of Services.
4. Certification of Personnel
The principal attorney or principal of the firm will need to verify and certify the resumes, including the academic record, experience, and professional license of the lead lawyers and professional personnel identified in Items IV-2 and IV-3 above.
5. Experience
List significant experience, in the area of expertise required and described above, as to each of the professionals listed as available to perform work for the County Real Property Legal Services and those who will be directly responsible for their work product. The list should include information such as: real estate transactions, leasing, licensing, title matters, real estate development, financing, acquisitions, dispositions, public-private partnerships, title insurance and survey, environmental matters, construction contracts, California Environmental Quality Act, and zoning and entitlement matters, the names of the public entities or private property owners represented. Also list all major real property transactions for which the attorney or firm was retained in the past 10 years, listing all parties involved, the project involved, the outcome.
6. Attorney/Firm General Description
Provide a short description of your office’s or firm's organization with attached organization chart identifying those listed in Items IV-2 and IV-3 above. Provide also a short description of your office’s or firm's overall approach to the handling of real property matters, including, if applicable, specific techniques that will be used, expert valuation witnesses employed, and specific administrative and operational management expertise that will be employed. Describe how you would approach and staff the project.
7. Conflict of Interest
Please disclose any financial, business, professional, or other relationship the firm has with any person or entity that is in a position adverse to County. Please describe your firm's system for identifying possible conflicts of interest. The attorney/firm will be expected to have a system to identify possible conflict of interests and to notify County Counsel of these conflicts at the earliest possible opportunity so as to avoid any possible prejudice to County. The attorney/firm will be expected to comply with the Conflict of Interest Policy for Outside Counsel adopted by the Board of Supervisors (Attachment C), in addition to obligations imposed on attorneys under the Rules of Professional Conduct and under law.
V. SELECTION PROCESS
Selection of the attorney(s) or law firm(s) will be a four-step process:
Step One: Screening of the SOQs by a review panel: All SOQs meeting the submittal requirements will be evaluated by a review panel.
1. The names of the review panel members will not be revealed to the attorney(s) or law firm(s) prior to the interviews. Individual or composite scoring by the review panel members will not be revealed.
2. Members of the review panel will review the SOQ submissions to determine those firms to be invited for an oral presentation and interview. This determination shall be made based on the review panel members’ separate and independent review and scoring of the SOQ written submissions based on the criteria, scoring system and weighting applicable to the written SOQ submissions, as described in Attachment D hereto.
Step Two: Based solely on the highest cumulative totals of the review panel members’ independent scoring of the written SOQ submissions, a list of finalists (no fewer than four (4) and no more than eight (8), depending on how many SOQs are received) will be generated and finalists will be notified when their presentations and interviews are scheduled. Finalists will be interviewed using the same set of primary questions to be posed to all finalists (with any reasonable and necessary follow-up questions on each issue) by the review panel. Finalists will also be given an opportunity to make an opening presentation of approximately 10 minutes unless you are notified otherwise as to the presentation’s length (adequate notice of any modification of the presentation’s permitted length shall be provided prior to the interview). Principal attorneys or principal team members of the firm should participate in the interview. The proposed Lead Attorney should lead the presentation.
Step Three: Members of the review panel shall each independently score each finalist’s responses and performance during the interviews based on a uniform scoring system, with the format, criteria and weighting of criteria to be decided by the review panel, tailored to fit the particular recruitment, prior to conducting any of the interviews. The weighting to be assigned to the scores received by the attorneys or firms on their written submissions relative to the scores they received during the interviews shall be decided upon by the review panel prior to conducting any interviews of the finalists. Each attorney’s or firm’s interview scores shall then be added to its total score from the SOQ written submissions. From those total scores, the review panel will derive a preliminary ranked list of the finalists from highest to lowest in their total scores. The review panel may then discuss the outcome of the rankings and discuss whether any compelling reasons exist to adjust the rankings. Based on the review panel’s scores and any adjustments which they agree on, the review panel shall then issue a list of the finalists with their final rankings according to which attorney(s) or law firm(s) the panel believes best meet the County’s requirements for counsel.
Step Four: Based on the review panel’s final rankings, County Counsel will submit recommendations to the Board of Supervisors for selection of the two top-ranked attorneys or law firms to represent the County, along with a detailed description, if applicable, of whether and why the review panel issued final rankings that varied in any manner from the raw cumulative scores of the finalists’ total scores for SOQ submissions and interviews.
VI. SUBMITTAL INSTRUCTIONS
Attorney(s) or law firm(s) desiring to respond to this request are asked to submit one (1) original and nine (9) copies of the Statement of Qualifications.
SOQ’s are due by 5:00 PM (PST) on February 26, 2016, and may be mailed or hand delivered in a sealed package to the following address:
Leon J. Page, County Counsel
County of Orange
333 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Ste. 407
P.O. Box 1379
Santa Ana, CA 92702-1379
Attention: Thomas A. Miller, Supervising Deputy County Counsel
VII. OTHER PROCEDURAL INFORMATION
The County reserves the right to negotiate modifications with any attorney or law firm as necessary to serve the best interests of the County. Any proposal may be rejected if it is conditional, incomplete or deviates from specifications in this SOQ. The County reserves the right to waive, at its discretion, any procedural irregularity, immaterial defects, or other improprieties which the County deems reasonably correctable or otherwise not warranting rejection of the proposal. Any waiver will not excuse an attorney or law firm from full compliance with all other components of the SOQ. Attorney responding with an SOQ should be aware that execution of a contract and provision of legal services to the County may result in assigned attorneys becoming designated employees for the purposes of filing a Statement of Economic Interest (Form 700).
Nothing contained in this request for Statement of Qualifications shall create any contractual relationship between the County and any responding attorney or law firm.
Attorney(s) or law firm(s) are solely responsible for any costs incurred in the development and submission of the SOQs or any other presentation, in response to the SOQ.
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ATTACHMENT A
ATTACHMENT A
GENERAL INFORMATION SHEET
FOR REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
Please complete and place at the front of your Statement of Qualification. All information submitted with your Statement of Qualification will be maintained in confidence only to the extent permitted by state and federal law.
Legal Name of Attorney/Firm
______
Corporation Identification Date
Number and Federal Employer
Identification Number
______
______
Address
Type of Organization (Partnership, Corporation, etc.)
Name of Lead Attorney, Title, State Bar Number
Name, Title and Telephone Number of Contact for this Proposal