401(k) Plan Legal Services Combined Synopsis Solicitation.pdf

RFQ No. FHF-25-Q-0002

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation and request for quotes (RFQ) for commercial services in accordance with the procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 12 - Acquisition of Commercial Products and Commercial Services – and FAR part 13 - Simplified Acquisition Procedures, with FAR part 12 taking precedence per FAR 13.500(b)’s reference to FAR 12.102(c). This announcement constitutes the only solicitation with quotes requested.

FHFA is seeking the services of a law firm experienced in in 401(k) plans administered by a federal agency to provide the full scope of legal services related the administration of FHFA’s 401(k) Plan, to include legal advice, representation, and litigation services, if necessary.

Attachment A addresses the work requirements as a Statement of Work for required services.

This requirement is unrestrictive under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 541110 (Office of Lawyers) with a standard size standard of $15.5M. FHFA anticipates making a single contract award pursuant to this solicitation.

Questions, Suggested Alternate Terms, and Answers Quoters are invited to submit any questions or suggested alternate terms (including changes to the solicitation, contract clauses, statement of assumptions, or other terms). FHFA will consider all input and attempt to balance the needs of all parties.

Questions or other suggested changes must be submitted by 12:00 noon October 30th, 2024 by email to Carmen.Rios@fhfa.gov. Questions, any written responses, or amendments will be posted at the Contract Opportunities webpage (please see https://sam.gov/content/opportunities for more information). Quoters must use Attachment D, Solicitation Questions Worksheet, to organize and submit your questions.

FAR References Any FAR clauses or provisions referenced may be obtained at www.acquisition.gov/far. Also, any reference to offeror or offer has the same meaning as quoter or quote for this solicitation.

The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular FAC 2024-07, September 30, 2024.

Submission Instructions Quoters shall be registered in the System for Award Management as stated in FAR 52.204- 7(b)(1).

Therefore, FAR 52.204-7 and FAR 52.204-16 are hereby incorporated by reference into the solicitation.

A Quoter that is not actively registered in the System for Award Management at the time of quote submission will not have its quote considered and will not be eligible for award.

Each Quoter shall submit an electronic quotation (Volumes I and II in separate files) to Carmen G. Rios, Contracting Officer, Carmen.Rios@fhfa.gov.

mailto:Carmen.Rios@fhfa.gov https://sam.gov/content/opportunities http://www.acquisition.gov/far mailto:Carmen.Rios@fhfa.gov

The electronic quotation shall include any scanned copies of signatures associated with the quotation. Spreadsheets shall be submitted in Excel format.

Each email quotation including attachments cannot exceed 50 MB because it may be rejected by FHFA’s server. If your entire quotation exceeds 50MB in size, please divide your quotation into appropriate smaller emails.

If a Quoter chooses to submit a quotation, the quote must remain valid for a minimum of 120 calendar days.

Quotes are due no later than the date and time listed in Contract Opportunities.

All quotations must include a cover page addressing the following information:

1. RFQ Number

2. Quoter’s Name

3. Subcontractor Name(s), If Applicable

4. Quoter Tax Identification Number (TIN)

5. Quoter System for Award Management (SAM) Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

6. Contact Name

7. Contact Email address

8. Contact telephone number

9. Complete business mailing address

10. The following statements: “The Quoter takes no exception and completely accepts all the terms and conditions in the RFQ and subsequent amendments.”

Volume I: Technical Quotation

The Vendor’s technical submission should demonstrate the firm’s capability to perform the work requirements outlined in Attachment A - Statement of Work. Volume I shall include separate sections within the volume outlining the following items: (1) Law Firm Experience; (2) Proposed Personnel (Partner and Associate), and (3) Conflict of Interest.

(1) Law Firm Experience

Firms shall describe their experience providing similar services as described in the SOW to government entities/plans, with a preference for experience with 401(k) plans of Federal agencies. The description of the law firm experience shall not exceed three (3) pages.

(2) Proposed Personnel (Partner and Associate)

Firms shall identify and describe the relevant experience of the primary attorneys proposed to meet the requirements of the SOW. Firms must submit information for at least one partner and one associate, and may provide information on up to five attorneys in total. The description of the proposed attorneys’ experience should not exceed five (5) pages total for all attorneys. In addition, resumes shall be submitted for the proposed personnel. There is no page limit for the resumes.

By submitting a quotation each Vendor certifies to the following statement: “I certify that each individual identified is available for performance. If an individual identified is not currently employed by my firm or a proposed subcontractor, the individual has signed a written commitment to perform if my quote receives an award.”

(3) Conflict of Interest

The vendor shall identify any actual or potential attorney-client conflict of interest (COI). If no such conflict exists, the vendor shall affirmatively state that it is not aware of any actual or potential attorney-client COI relating to the services required by this solicitation. If an actual or potential conflict of interest exists, the vendor shall submit a COI Mitigation Plan as part of their quote, as described below.

The COI Mitigation Plan shall identify any potential or existing COI with respect to their firm’s representation of FHFA. As part of the plan the vendor shall describe their proposed mitigation plan for the COI. The quoted COI Mitigation Plan will be included as part of the contract. The COI Mitigation Plan shall not exceed three (3) pages.

Page Limitation. Page limits for each part of the technical submission are as specified above.

The font and format should be of readable quality. Excessively small font may be rejected or not evaluated at the Contracting Officer’s discretion. Pages that exceed the maximum page limitation will not be evaluated.

Quoters shall not include any price information in the technical quotation. For the overall technical quotation, a recitation or paraphrasing of the requirements already identified in the SOW will not improve the quotation.

Volume II: Price Quotation

Each Quoter shall submit a price quotation (Volume II) separate from the technical quotation (Volume I). The price quotation shall include the following:

Completion of Attachment D, including any stated options. The labor categories and number of hours are solely for evaluation purposes and should neither be considered a minimum nor an expectation of actual requirements. The labor rates must include all costs associated with performance including all overhead, overtime, local travel, and any other costs not expressly identified as an Other Direct Cost (ODC). All labor rates shall be rounded to two decimal points.

FHFA will evaluate the quoted prices for reasonableness.

Page Limitation. There is no page limitation on the price quote submission.

Volume III: Representations and Certifications

Quoters shall have completed representations and certifications in SAM (https://sam.gov/content/entity-information) FAR 52.212-3. Refer to FAR 52.212-3(b) of this solicitation if any changes or updates to the quoter’s representations and certifications need to be made; these must be completed prior to the solicitation deadline to be considered. Please submit a statement on your cover page included, as indicated above, which attests to your company having up-to-date and complete Representations and Certifications in SAM.

Page Limitation. There is no page limitation for Volume III.

EVALUATION AND SELECTION PROCESS

FHFA’s Contracting Officer reserves the right to conduct a compliance review and reject any quotation as non-compliant if the quotation takes exception to any of the terms of the RFQ, IT and personnel security requirements (i.e., background checks), includes assumptions, or does not conform to the RFQ’s submission instructions.

Since this award is made under the policies of FAR part 12 in conjunction with FAR part 13 procedures, the evaluation process is streamlined, and FHFA has considerable flexibility in its award decision. FHFA will evaluate the quotation considering positive attributes, negative attributes, and potential risk of the overall quotation.

During the evaluation process, FHFA may or may not conduct exchanges. If FHFA conducts exchanges, such exchanges may be with one, several, or all quoters. Exchanges may vary based on FHFA’s need to understand or give quoters an opportunity to improve their quotations, but all exchanges will be fair and equitable.

Only Quoters whose quotes receive an overall technical rating of acceptable or higher will be considered for award. Following an evaluation and, if necessary, tradeoff analysis, FHFA may make one or more than one award based on the quote(s) that is (are) evaluated to be the best value and determined responsible. While not guaranteed, at the current time, FHFA intends to make one (1) award.

FHFA reserves the right to make an award based on other than the lowest quoted price.

Technical (Volume I) is more important than price (Volume II); however, the importance of price as a factor could become greater if competing quotations are evaluated as technically equal.

https://sam.gov/content/entity-information

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS

Attachment A Statement of Work

Attachment B FAR Provisions & Clauses and FHFA Specialty Clauses

Attachment C Pricing Worksheet

Attachment D Solicitation Questions