Intent to Sole Source

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of General Counsel (GC) plans to issue a purchase order to Westlaw as the only responsible source to prevent a break in service while a competitive action is awarded for legal database access.

The Government intends to include and exercise the 52.217-8 option to extend a purchase order to Westlaw in order to continue access to critical legal research services during the period of time to finalize a competitive procurement. The period of performance for this award will be for up to six months from October 1, 2025, through March 31, 2026. It is not realistic to consider transition to another legal research services provider for the short period of time during which DOE is conducting a competitive procurement (and then possibly a second transition after award of the competitive procurement). Such a situation would create considerable disruption to the individuals utilizing the online legal research services, and this disruption would impact critical ongoing litigation and legal matters.

The award will be issued via other than full and open competition, only one responsible source and no other supplies and services will satisfy agency requirements. This is a NOTICE OF INTENT; no solicitation is available for this requirement. If a firm believes DOE should not pursue this sole source procurement with Westlaw for their proprietary analytics, then interested parties may submit a capability statement, which shall be considered by the agency NO LATER THAN five (5) days from posting date via e-mail to Kelley Vandecoevering, kelley.vandecoevering@hq.doe.gov. The written response must include a general statement for services indicated in this announcement and past performance client information for a similar product.

A determination by the Government to compete this proposed purchase order based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct this requirement competitively in the future. No solicitation is available for this requirement. No telephone calls will be accepted.