Combined Synopsis Solicitation.pdf

RFQ No. FHF-23-Q-0012

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 law firms that are experienced in Federal employment law matters and are able to respond quickly to urgent matters as they arise. FHFA is not seeking attorney staffing services. The scope of the technical tasks for which future task orders may be issued is set forth in Attachment A, Statement of Work (SOW). Please refer to the SOW for additional information.

This requirement is set-aside for small business concerns under NAICS code 541110 (Office of Lawyers) with a small business size standard of $13.5M. FHFA anticipates making two Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract awards 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 December 16, 2022 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 G, 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 2022-08, October 28, 2022.

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, II, and III 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. Late submissions, modifications, and revisions will be managed in accordance with FAR 52.212-1(f).

FHFA’s Contracting Officer reserves the right to reject the 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.

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. The Quoter understands that the law firm shall comply with FHFA Clause 6.208a, FHFA Network Access (JUN 2019) or 6.208b IT Security clause for acquisitions in which FHFA Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) will be processed, stored, or transmitted in a nonfederal information system (OCT 2020).

Compliance with FHFA Clause 6.208a requires all contractor personnel with access to FHFA CUI to complete a background check as set forth in FHFA Clause 6.207, Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 [HSPD-12] (JUN 2020) and complete mandatory, FHFA-provided training prior to accessing FHFA’s network

Volume I: Technical Quotation – Law Firm Experience

The Quoter’s technical submission should demonstrate the firm’s capability to perform the work requirements outlined in the Statement of Work (SOW) (Attachment A). Volume I shall include separate sections within the volume outlining the following items:

Law Firm Experience

The Government will evaluate the breadth and depth of the law firm’s experience in Federal employment law matters as described in the SOW. The firm as a whole must specialize in Federal employment law or have a well-established practice group that specializes in Federal employment law. In addressing this factor, the quoter must describe the firm’s relevant experience in the field to include: 1) number of attorneys in the firm who currently specialize in federal employment law and the titles of those attorneys (i.e., how many partners, associates at the firm actively represent clients in federal employment law); 2) the number of years the firm or practice group as a whole has specialized in federal employment law; and 3) experience representing and/or advising Federal agencies in federal employment law matters. The Law Firm Experience submission shall not exceed two (2) pages.

As described under the Evaluation and Selection section, only vendors who are the most highly rated with respect to Law Firm Experience will be evaluated under Volumes II and III.

Volume II: Technical Quotation – Proposed Personnel’s Experience, Past Performance, and Conflict of Interest Mitigation Plan

Proposed Personnel’s Experience

The Government will evaluate the extent to which the quoter’s proposed personnel demonstrate experience relevant to the required tasks. The Quoter shall complete the Personnel Questionnaire (Attachment F) for up to three individuals proposed at the partner level and up to three individuals proposed at the associate level (see labor category descriptions in the SOW).

The individuals submitted shall be those the Quoter is most likely to propose for future task order competitions. The questionnaire response for each attorney shall not exceed four pages.

The Quoter shall also provide a resume for each attorney for whom a questionnaire is submitted.

Resumes shall not exceed three pages.

Past Performance

The Government will evaluate recent and relevant past performance of each Vendor. A Vendor may submit past performance examples for itself and for any subcontractors. However, Vendors must include at least one reference for subcontractors that will perform any portion of the work.

Vendors may submit up to three (3) examples of contracts performed by the Vendor or subcontractors, demonstrating recent and relevant past performance. Recent is defined as within the last 3 years from the date of this RFQ. Relevant is defined as work similar in scope, complexity and magnitude to that identified in Attachment A. Past performance representing federal agencies is preferred. Please include the following information, limited to no more than two (2) pages for all three (3) examples:

1) Customer Name and Address

2) Contract Number/Contract Title/Contract Type

3) Period of Performance

4) Contract Value

5) Description of the work performed

6) Customer Point of Contact (Name, Telephone Number and Address) for Business Manager and Technical Manager

7) If applicable, the Contracting Officer’s name, address, telephone number and email address.

8) Current status, e.g., completed and/or in progress, start and estimated completion dates.

9) A brief narrative of why your firm believes this reference is relevant to the proposed effort.

Vendors are advised that by submitting a quotation, FHFA may use any data available in the evaluation of past performance, including data concerning any subcontractors. By submitting a quotation, the Vendor acknowledges that it has received a consent letter from each applicable subcontractor, authorizing release by FHFA of adverse past performance information to the Vendor, so the Vendor can respond to such information. For each identified effort for a commercial customer (reference), the Vendor (to include all subcontractors) also acknowledges by submitting a quotation that it has notified each reference in writing that the reference is authorized to release to FHFA any of the Vendor’s or proposed subcontractor(s)’ past performance information directly to FHFA.

A past performance questionnaire is attached (Attachment E). The Vendor shall forward this questionnaire to each of the customers listed in the quotation and ensure that the response is submitted directly to the email address and by the deadline identified for the submission of the quotation. The responsibility to send out and track the completion of the questionnaires rests solely with the Vendor.

Conflict of Interest Mitigation Plan

The Government will evaluate the methods employed by the Vendor to detect, avoid, mitigate, and provide notice of any existing or potential Conflict of Interest (COI).

All vendors shall submit a COI Mitigation Plan as part of their quote. The COI Plan shall identify any potential or existing COI with respect to their firm’s representation of FHFA. As part of the plan, and regardless of whether a COI currently exists, Vendors shall also explain how they will monitor, detect, avoid, and mitigate any existing or potential COI. The quoted COI Mitigation Plan will be included as part of the contract. Refer to Section 6 of the SOW (Attachment A) for further details. The COI Mitigation Plan shall not exceed three 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.

As described under the Evaluation and Selection section, the Agency will evaluate the proposed fully burdened labor rates (Volume III) of the two most highly rated quotes to determine if the rates are fair and reasonable.

Volume III - Price Quotation

Each Quoter shall submit a price quotation separate from the technical quotation (Volumes I and

II).

The offeror shall complete the provided Attachment D – Pricing Worksheet, for the services identified in the SOW (Attachment A). The Quoter shall identify and provide fully loaded labor rates for all labor categories/titles (for example, Partner, Associate, Junior Associate, Paralegal), for each listed year of performance (Ordering Periods I, II, III, IV, V, Year VI, Year VII, and Year VIII) that the Vendor is likely to propose to satisfy the requirements of the SOW (Attachment A). Note that although the awarded IDIQ contracts will be for five (5) years, quoters are to provide labor rates for three (3) additional years. These three (3) additional years of labor rates will be utilized for any task order with a period of performance that extends beyond the five-year IDIQ ordering period. Aside from the other direct costs allowed under Section 9 of the SOW, the labor rates must include all costs associated with performance including all overhead, overtime, local travel, and other costs. All labor rates shall be rounded to two decimal points.

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

Volume IV - 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. In addition, quoters shall ensure their responses to the following provisions are submitted as part of Volume IV:

1. Completed 52.204-24. NOTE: “[t]he Offeror shall not complete the representation at paragraph (d)(1) of this provision if the Offeror has represented that it "does not provide covered telecommunications equipment or services as a part of its offered products or services to the Government in the performance of any contract, subcontract, or other contractual instrument" in paragraph (c)(1) in the provision at 52.204-26, Covered Telecommunications Equipment or Services—Representation, or in paragraph (v)(2)(i) of the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Products or Commercial Services. The Offeror shall not complete the representation in paragraph (d)(2) of this provision if the Offeror has represented that it "does not use covered telecommunications equipment or services, or any equipment, system, or service that uses covered telecommunications equipment or services" in paragraph (c)(2) of the provision at 52.204-26, or in paragraph (v)(2)(ii) of the provision at 52.212-3.”

https://sam.gov/content/entity-information https://www.acquisition.gov/far/52.204-26#FAR_52_204_26 https://www.acquisition.gov/far/52.212-3#FAR_52_212_3 https://www.acquisition.gov/far/52.204-26#FAR_52_204_26 https://www.acquisition.gov/far/52.212-3#FAR_52_212_3

2. Completed 52.209-7

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

EVALUATION AND SELECTION PROCESS

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.

If FHFA conducts exchanges, exchanges may be with one, several, or all Quoters. Exchanges may vary based on FHFA’s need to understand or give the Quoters an opportunity to improve their quotations, but all exchanges will be fair and equitable.

The source selection process will not be based on a lowest-priced, technically acceptable basis or on best-value tradeoffs between technical merit and price. For this effort, best value to the Agency will be determined based on the Highest Rated Quotes with a Fair and Reasonable Price.

Award will be made to the two quoters whose quotes receive the highest technical ratings (Volumes I and II submissions) that are also determined to have fair and reasonable pricing (Volume III submission). There will be no tradeoff between non-price factors (Law Firm Experience, Proposed Personnel’s Experience, Past Performance, COI Mitigation Plan) and price, and there is no relative weighting between the non-price factors and price. There will not be a tradeoff to justify paying a premium for a higher technically rated quote. In this process, the government is concerned with receiving the best technical quotes with fair and reasonable labor rates. FHFA anticipates that best-value tradeoff evaluation schemes will be used when conducting task order competitions among contract awardees.

The evaluation will proceed as follows. First, the Agency will first evaluate Law Firm Experience (Volume I). Quotes that are not among the most highly rated will not be evaluated further. Second, the Agency will evaluate the remaining quotes under all non-price factors (Volume II) and rank the highest-rated quotes. The Agency reserves the right to conduct oral presentations with vendors if necessary to further evaluate the non-price factors. If oral presentations are required, the Agency will provide the most highly rated vendors with instructions for the presentations. Vendors who are not selected for oral presentations will no longer be considered for award. Third, the Agency will evaluate the proposed fully burdened labor rates (Volume III) of the two most highly rated quotes to determine if the rates are fair and reasonable. The Agency will not evaluate the pricing of those quotes that are not the two most highly rated. If the labor rates of the two most highly rated quotes are evaluated as fair and reasonable, those quotes will be determined to represent the best value to FHFA and be selected for award.

Proposed labor rates will be evaluated for reasonableness using the price analysis techniques outlined in FAR 15.404-1(b)(2), which may include comparisons of similar labor categories on current FHFA contracts for legal services, as well as through the use of other price comparison tools. FHFA reserves the right to conduct a price realism analysis to assess whether the proposed prices are unrealistically low. Unrealistically low prices may be considered a negative attribute to the extent that they reflect a lack of technical understanding or a risk to meeting requirements. The fair and reasonable evaluation of rates will be used to establish maximum rates on awarded contracts.

The Government intends to award a contract resulting from the solicitation to two (2) law firms; however, the Government retains the right to award fewer or more than two (2) awards should it be determined in its best interest.

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS

Attachment A Statement of Work

Attachment B FAR Provisions & Clauses and FHFA Specialty Clauses

Attachment C Department of Labor (DoL) Wage Determination

Attachment D Pricing Worksheet

Attachment E Past Performance Questionnaire

Attachment F Personnel Questionnaire

Attachment G Solicitation Questions