Title
Paralegal Services (Ordinance S-44492)
Description
Request to authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to extend Contract 138292 with Lee Davis and Associates, Inc., and to authorize additional expenditures in an amount of $403,000 for Paralegal Services. Further request authorization for the City Controller to disburse all funds related to this item.
Report
Summary
The Law Department sources a large number of litigation cases that had previously been assigned to outside legal counsel. The in-sourcing has resulted in significant savings to the City on an annual basis. In order to properly handle these cases, the City of Phoenix relies on the assistance of Lee Davis and Associates, Inc., a paralegal firm. The firm provides vital services such as document management, medical records analysis, legal research and other duties the Assistant City Attorney or sole in-house litigation paralegal may not have the capacity for and that other staff may not be qualified to handle or prepared to accomplish within important timeframes. The additional funds are needed to continue obtaining services from Lee Davis and Associates, Inc. to bridge the gap in defending the City against lawsuits and to ensure the Law Department operates efficiently and effectively.
The authorization of additional funds will also support the completion of the Aviation Department Planning and Environmental Division's project consisting of Lee Davis and Associates, Inc., reviewing, organizing, and logging approximately 520 boxes of technical and regulatory information. This project is necessary to organize the information in a consistent and orderly manner to support accessibility of the information which may be required to respond to future regulatory inquiries or legal claims.
Contract Term
This request will extend the contract up to 12 months on a month-to-month basis beginning July 1, 2018. During this time, staff will finalize and issue the new procurement for Paralegal Services.
Financial Impact
With the $403,000 in additional funds, the contract's revised aggregate value is now $1,903,000 (including applicable taxes). Funds are available in the Law Department's operating budget.
Concurrence/Previous Council Action
This contract is a result of RFQu11-LAW-003 awarded by Formal Council Action on April 4, 2014, with an original aggregate value of $1,500,000.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Milton Dohoney, Jr. and the Law Department.