Intent to Sole Source
Closed Special Notice Posted
- Solicitation number
- 89303025NGC000013
- Agency
-
Headquarters
Department of Energy
- Responses due
- Set-aside
- No set-aside
Opportunity facts
- Place of performance
- Washington, District of Columbia 20585, United States
- Points of contact
Notice details come from SAM.gov. Updated .
About this opportunity
The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of General Counsel has published a notice of intent to award a sole source purchase order to Westlaw for continued access to legal database services. The agency plans to exercise the 52.217-8 option clause to extend Westlaw's current services for up to six months, from October 1, 2025, through March 31, 2026. DOE characterizes Westlaw as the only responsible source capable of providing uninterrupted service during this transitional period. The agency emphasizes that transitioning to another legal research provider for such a brief period would create significant disruption to ongoing litigation and critical legal matters. This procurement will be conducted using other than full and open competition procedures based on the determination that only one responsible source exists that can meet the agency's requirements.
The purpose of this sole source procurement is to prevent service interruptions while DOE conducts a competitive procurement process for long-term legal database services. Interested parties who believe they can provide equivalent services have until September 14, 2025, to submit capability statements via email to the designated contracting officer. These capability statements must include a general description of services matching the announcement requirements and past performance information for similar products or services. The government retains full discretion to determine whether to compete this procurement based on the responses received. No solicitation is currently available, as this notice serves only to announce the government's intent and provide an opportunity for potential competitors to demonstrate their capabilities. The determination to proceed with sole source or competitive procurement will be made solely at the government's discretion after reviewing any submitted capability statements.
Notice text
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of General Counsel (GC) plans to issue a purchase order to Westlaw as the only responsible source to prevent a break in service while a competitive action is awarded for legal database access.
The Government intends to include and exercise the 52.217-8 option to extend a purchase order to Westlaw in order to continue access to critical legal research services during the period of time to finalize a competitive procurement. The period of performance for this award will be for up to six months from October 1, 2025, through March 31, 2026. It is not realistic to consider transition to another legal research services provider for the short period of time during which DOE is conducting a competitive procurement (and then possibly a second transition after award of the competitive procurement). Such a situation would create considerable disruption to the individuals utilizing the online legal research services, and this disruption would impact critical ongoing litigation and legal matters.
The award will be issued via other than full and open competition, only one responsible source and no other supplies and services will satisfy agency requirements. This is a NOTICE OF INTENT; no solicitation is available for this requirement. If a firm believes DOE should not pursue this sole source procurement with Westlaw for their proprietary analytics, then interested parties may submit a capability statement, which shall be considered by the agency NO LATER THAN five (5) days from posting date via e-mail to Kelley Vandecoevering, kelley.vandecoevering@hq.doe.gov. The written response must include a general statement for services indicated in this announcement and past performance client information for a similar product.
A determination by the Government to compete this proposed purchase order based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct this requirement competitively in the future. No solicitation is available for this requirement. No telephone calls will be accepted.
On GovTribe
Work this opportunity
- Track it in your pipeline
- Find teaming partners
- Similar opportunities
- Ask GovTribe AI about this opportunity