RFP Legal Services - April 2026

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC), a New York State Public Benefit Corporation operating in New York County, issued this Request for Proposals on April 3, 2026, seeking to establish a pre-qualified legal services panel from law firms and individual practitioners of all sizes. RIOC requires legal representation across eight distinct practice areas: general corporate law and corporate governance, real estate and land use, residential and commercial landlord/tenant matters, environmental law, construction law, labor and employment law, general litigation (excluding personal injury), and municipal/government entity representation. Qualified respondents must demonstrate expertise in one or more of these practice areas, including litigation capabilities, and must maintain professional liability insurance of $3,000,000 per claim, commercial general liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence, and workers' compensation at statutory limits. Compensation will be structured on hourly rates submitted by each firm for partners, senior counsel, junior counsel, and administrative/paralegal staff, with firms permitted to offer discounted state rates and waive travel time or start-up hours. The evaluation criteria allocate 50% weight to qualifications and experience, 30% to demonstrated experience with municipalities or similar governmental entities, and 20% to overall proposal quality. Key deadlines include an information request cutoff of April 17, 2026, at 3:00 p.m., with responses posted April 23, 2026, proposals due April 29, 2026, by 3:00 p.m. to RIOC at 426 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, NY 10044, and interviews scheduled for May 7-13, 2026, with anticipated award notification at the end of May 2026. The contract term spans five years with an optional five-year renewal at RIOC's sole discretion, commencing in mid-May 2026 upon Board approval.

RIOC established a 30% Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) participation goal and a 0% Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business (SDVOB) participation goal, requiring respondents to submit utilization plans and waiver requests as applicable, and to comply with New York State Tax Law Section 5-a certification requirements. No incumbent firms are identified as having received identical or substantially similar contracts within the past five years; however, existing counsel may continue work on pending matters but must submit proposals for pre-qualification on new matters. RIOC reserves the right to select multiple respondents for the pre-qualified panel and assign work on an as-needed basis without guaranteeing any minimum volume of work to any selected firm. Selected contractors must execute RIOC's standard form retainer agreement and comply with all M/WBE and non-discrimination requirements. No specific budget range or award value is disclosed in the procurement announcement; instead, total contract value will depend on the hourly rates submitted by selected firms and the actual volume of legal services requested by RIOC over the five-year term.