Legal Research Platform

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is requesting proposals for a cloud-based legal research platform subscription with proposals due July 17, 2026 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time, under a trade-off source-selection method emphasizing best value rather than lowest price alone.

The scope includes federal, state, and administrative legal research; litigation analytics; document drafting support; resource toolkits; docket monitoring; legal news and alerts; and public records research capabilities. The platform must be cloud-based and capable of supporting the University's Office of University Counsel operations.

The contract term is three years from the effective date, with options to renew for up to two additional one-year terms at the University's sole discretion. One-year extensions may be negotiated with vendor concurrence. Any resulting contract may be extended to other University of North Carolina System institutions at their discretion.

Evaluation criteria are conformance to specifications, comparison with competing offers, total cost of ownership, reference strength, vendor past performance, schedule, and implementation capability. Vendors submit cost proposals on the University's cost form; payment is net 30 days following invoice submission and product/service acceptance.

Security requirements mandate a current SOC 2 Type II report, passage of ISO risk assessment and Data Governance Oversight Group review, and potentially execution of Data Use or Business Associate Agreements depending on data scope. Vendors must maintain commercial general liability insurance with a $2 million general aggregate limit, workers' compensation insurance, automobile liability coverage, and professional liability insurance with $1 million per-loss limits.

Vendors must be North Carolina registered suppliers in good standing and submit proposals electronically through the North Carolina electronic Vendor Portal. Written questions are due June 24, 2026. Finalist interviews and product demonstrations are scheduled by August 7, 2026, with contract negotiations and award to follow.