Notice of Intent - Sole Source - e-Publishing Interface

The U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Hearings and Appeals is seeking to procure continued access to West Publishing Corporation's proprietary e-publishing legal research interface through a sole source contract. The specific requirement is for Westlaw Weblink services, which provide public access to SBA OHA's full text legal decisions via a website link and enable uninterrupted access to Westlaw's proprietary legal research database for accurate legal decisions aligned with current precedent. The SBA has determined that West Publishing is the sole source capable of providing these services as they are the proprietary owner of Westlaw Weblinks and currently host the agency's published decisions. Market research revealed no alternative vendors could provide comparable features without significant technical implementation costs and workflow disruption. The pre-solicitation notice was posted on July 18, 2025, with a due date of July 25, 2025, and the contract is targeted for award on September 1, 2025, following a seven-day public notice period on SAM.gov.

This procurement does not utilize any set-aside designations and identifies West Publishing Corporation (Westlaw) as the incumbent contractor who currently provides the required services. The SBA emphasizes that approximately 6,600 SBA OHA published decisions are currently hosted on the Westlaw platform, representing a substantial existing repository of legal content. The agency has determined that changing vendors would require extensive data conversion, repository rebuilding, and staff retraining, which could potentially impair mission readiness and risk data integrity. The contract falls under NAICS code 541199 for All Other Legal Services and PSC category B522 for Special Studies/Analysis-Legal. While specific award values are not disclosed in the pre-solicitation notice, the justification indicates this is a re-competition of an existing contract relationship with West Publishing Corporation.