Independent Legal Opinion

Active

Contract Opportunity

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation and request for quotes (RFQ) for commercial products or 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.

This requirement is considered unrestricted under NAICS 541110 Offices of Lawyers with no size standard; therefore, any qualified, responsible vendor may submit a quote.

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 via email to Laura Baker, Contracting Officer (CO), at Laura.Baker@fhfa.gov by 2:00pm Eastern on July 28, 2025. Questions, any written responses, or amendments will be posted at the Contract Opportunities webpage (please see https://sam.gov/content/opportunities for more information).

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 2025-04, June 11, 2025.

Submission Instructions

Quoters shall be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) when submitting a quote and at time of award 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 SAM 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 quote (Volumes I, II, and III in separate files) to Laura Baker, CO, at Laura.Baker@fhfa.gov.

When emailing your quote, please submit a courtesy copy (cc) to the following email address: Jennifer.Sellers@fhfa.gov.

The electronic quote shall include any scanned copies of signatures associated with the quote. Attachment D Price Schedule shall be submitted in Excel format.

Each email quote including attachments cannot exceed 50MB because it may be rejected by FHFA’s server. If your entire quote exceeds 50MB in size, please divide your quote into appropriate smaller emails.

If a Quoter chooses to submit a quote, the quote must remain valid for a minimum of 60 calendar days.

Quotes are due no later than the date and time identified on SAM.gov. Late submissions, modifications, and revisions will be managed in accordance with FAR 52.212-1(f).

Volume I: Technical Quote

The Quoter’s technical submission should demonstrate the firm’s capability to perform the work requirements outlined in the Attachment A Performance Work Statement. All quotes must include a one-page Cover Page addressing the following information:

1. RFQ Number


2. Quoter’s Name


3. Subcontractor Name(s), if applicable


4. Quoter System for Award Management (SAM) Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)


5. Contact Name


6. Contact Email address


7. Contact telephone number


8. Complete business mailing address


9. The following statement “The Quoter takes no exception and completely accepts all the terms and conditions in the RFQ and subsequent amendments.”

Volume I shall include separate sections within the volume outlining the following items: (1) Law Firm Experience and (2) Personnel.

(1) Law Firm Experience

Firms shall describe, in narrative form, the Quoter’s capability to fulfill the overall requirements and their experience advising on similar issues as described in Attachment A.

The description of the law firm experience shall not exceed four (4) pages.

(2) Personnel

Firms shall identify and describe the relevant experience of the primary attorneys proposed to meet the requirements of the PWS. Firms must submit information for at least one Partner and one Associate, and may provide information on up to five attorneys in total, including Counsel. The description of the proposed attorneys’ experience should not exceed five (5) pages total for all attorneys. In addition, resumes shall be submitted for the proposed key personnel. There is no page limit for the resumes.

By submitting a quote each Quoter certifies to the following statement: “I certify that each individual identified as key personnel is available for performance. If an individual identified as key personnel is not currently employed by my firm or a proposed subcontractor, the individual has signed a written commitment to perform if my quote receives an award.”

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.

Quoters shall not include any price information in the technical quote. For the overall technical quote, a recitation or paraphrasing of the requirements already identified in the work requirements will not improve the quote.

Volume II: Price Quote

Each Quoter shall submit a price quotation (Volume II) separate from the technical quotation (Volume I). The price quotation shall include the following:

Completion of Attachment D. The labor categories and number of hours are solely for evaluation purposes and should neither be considered a minimum nor an expectation of actual requirements. Quoter will not change quantities or other amounts inserted by FHFA in the RFQ. Quoters will only complete those cells highlighted in Yellow. Quoters must include a minimum of 90 hours for the Associate labor category and must include hours for the Partner and Associate labor categories. Quoters may propose hours for the Counsel position, consistent with the personnel proposed to perform the work. Quoters may quote additional labor categories for Section I but the total estimated hours across all labor categories shall not exceed 300 hours. The labor rate must include all costs associated with performance including all overhead, overtime, local travel, and any other costs not expressly identified as an Other Direct Cost (ODC). FHFA will evaluate the quoted prices for reasonableness. Attachment D Price Schedule shall be submitted in Excel format

Travel in the amount of $1,000.00 has been added to Attachment D for evaluation purposes only. Travel shall be reimbursed based on incurred costs per the current Federal Travel Regulation.

Completion of the fill-in under FAR 52.212-4(a)(4) in Attachment B Clauses & Provisions.

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

Volume III: Representations and Certifications

Quoters shall submit representations and certifications per FAR 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications—Commercial Products and Commercial Services (MAY 2024) (DEVIATION FEB 2025) (see FAR 52.212-3(b) for those representations and certifications that the quoter shall complete electronically). Please note sections (d) and (t) are considered “Reserved” for this solicitation.

NOTE: System updates may lag policy updates. The System for Award Management (SAM) may continue to require entities to complete representations based on provisions that are not included in agency solicitations. Examples include 52.222-25, Affirmative Action Compliance, 52.223-22, Public Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Reduction Goals—Representation, and paragraphs (d) and (t) of 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications—Commercial Products and Commercial Services. Contracting officers will not consider these representations when making award decisions or enforce requirements. Entities are not required to, nor are they able to, update their entity registration to remove these representations in SAM.

Page Limitation. There is no page limitation on the representations and certifications

submission.

Evaluation and Selection Process

FHFA’s Contracting Officer reserves the right to conduct a compliance review and reject any quote as non-compliant if the quote takes exception to any of the terms of the RFQ, includes assumptions, or does not conform to the RFQ’s submission instructions.

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 quote considering positive attributes, negative attributes, and potential risk of the overall quote.

During the evaluation process, FHFA may or may not conduct exchanges. If FHFA conducts exchanges, such exchanges may be with one, several, or all Quoters. Exchanges may vary based on FHFA’s need to understand or give Quoters an opportunity to improve their quotes, but all exchanges will be fair and equitable.

Only Quoters whose quotes receive an overall technical rating of acceptable or higher will be considered for award. Following an evaluation and, if necessary, tradeoff analysis, FHFA may make one or more than one award based on the quotes(s) that is (are) evaluated to be the best value and determined responsible. While not guaranteed, at the current time, FHFA intends to make one (1) award.

FHFA reserves the right to make an award based on other than the lowest quoted price. Technical (Volume I) is more important than price (Volume II); however, the importance of price as a factor could become greater if competing quotes are evaluated as technically equal.

List of Attachments

Attachment A Performance Work Statement

Attachment B Clauses & Provisions

Attachment C Nondisclosure Agreement

Attachment D Price Schedule

Attachments/Links