Minimum eligibility requirements:

The law firm must have been in business for a minimum of five years.

The individual(s) assigned to URS as lead attorney(s) must have a minimum of five years of relevant legal experience to advise pension plan trustees in the following areas: (1) employee benefits, (2) complicated tax matters, (3) federal, state, and local legislative and regulatory issues, (4) federal and state litigation, (5) federal tax qualification issues, (6) investment transactions, (7) fiduciary responsibility, (8) corporate governance, and (9) conflicts of law affecting pension plan systems.

The firm must have provided legal services to other public retirement systems or to corporate pension plans which are approximately the size of URS (or with the similar legal and political environment), representing the systems or plans in the wide range of legal areas stated above.

Schedule:

The following schedule has been set by the Board of Trustees of URS and may be changed by it if necessary. If the schedule changes, firms receiving the RFP will be notified by mail. In no event will the dates listed below be changed to earlier dates.

RFP issuance on:	January 1, 2003
Written questions from respondents must be received by:	January 30, 2003
Answers to written questions will be disseminated on:	February 13, 2003
Proposals due:	March 1, 2003 by 4:00 PM EST
URS’s evaluation of proposals:	March 1 – 5, 2003
Finalists notified:	March 6, 2003
Finalists presentations start: Finalists presentations end:	March 15, 2003 March 20, 2003
Law firm selection by:	March 23, 2003
Contract negotiation begin:	March 23 – 25, 2003
Contract award on:	March 30, 2003

Contact person:

Ms. Jane Doe

Executive Director

Utopia Retirement System

404 Main Street

Anywhere, Utopia 80439

Telephone (303) 606-9099

Fax (303) 606-9999

Email Jdoe@URS.org

Written questions and answers:

The URS will respond only to written questions seeking clarification of this RFP that are received via the mail, facsimile, or e-mail. Questions should be addressed to the contact person. All questions will be consolidated into a single Q&A document. The source of the questions will not be disclosed in the document. The Q&A document will be distributed to all firms who received the RFP.

Note:

Some RFPs include optional pre-proposal conferences while others do not since questions can be adequately asked and uniformly answered through written correspondence.

Proposals:

All interested firms should submit (number) bound copies of their responses to the contact person. Proposals received after the due date and time will not be considered.

Proposals may either be mailed or hand-delivered. If the proposal is sent by mail or commercial express delivery service, the respondents shall be responsible for actual delivery of the proposal to the proper address before the deadline. Faxed or emailed proposals will not be accepted. All proposals become the property of URS. All proposals are considered to be public record and shall be available for viewing and reproduction as the law provides.

The cost of preparing proposals will be borne by the respondents. Proposals are to address all the questions posed by URS in the order in which they appear in the RFP. Answers are to be succinct and firms must comply with page limitations.

Rules regarding contact:

The proposal period begins on January 1, 2003 and ends on March 20, 2003.

The URS’s Board of Trustees reserves the right to request additional information from any or all responding firms to assist it in its evaluation process. However, during the proposal period, no responding firm may contact the Board of Trustees, any individual trustee, or URS staff member, other than the contact person specified above. No responding firm may, at any time, attempt to influence the evaluation other than by a properly submitted response to this RFP or to a formal request for information or presentation.

Current service providers who are responding to this RFP are expected to limit their contact for business transactions to URS employees with whom they ordinarily interact and to avoid direct contact with Trustees or other staff during the proposal period, other than that which might occur at regularly scheduled meetings.

Evaluation of proposals:

The Board, committee, or subcommittee will evaluate proposals with the assistance of the General Counsel and Executive Director. During the evaluation process the Board, committee, or subcommittee may, at its discretion, request any or all firms to make oral presentations. Such presentations will provide firms with an opportunity to answer questions the Board, committee, or subcommittee may have on a firm’s proposal. Not all firms may be asked to make such oral presentations.

Finalists’ presentations:

If the Trustees request presentations by finalists, each finalist will have (number) hours to meet with the Board, committee, or subcommittee. At that time the respondents may present additional written information. It is highly recommended that the lead attorney be present at the finalist’s presentation.

Selection criteria:

The selection of the firm to provide legal services will be based upon the following weighted criteria:

Relevant experience of the firm and the individual attorneys proposed for URS	xx%
Proposed work plan, soundness of approach and understanding of the needs of URS	xx%
Demonstrated ability to perform the services referred to in the RFP	xx%
References and recommendations of other clients	xx%
Fees and the value they represent for the services to be provided	xx%

Contract negotiation:

A written contract with the law firm selected will be required. The terms of the contract are expected to be similar to the sample contract that the selected firm provided URS. However, URS reserves the right to further negotiate the terms and conditions of the contract with the selected firm.

Contract award:

URS reserves the right to award all, part, or none of this contract and may award contracts to more than one law firm if deemed appropriate and desirable.