General County Counsel Services

The County of Ocean is a County of Fifth Class as defined in N.J.S.A. 40A:6-1 et seq. Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 19:44A-20.4 et seq., the County of Ocean requests qualifications from vendors capable of providing General County Counsel Services for a three (3) year contract term.

The successful firm(s) must have a primary office in Ocean County and have a minimum of five (5) years’ experience in representing a New Jersey County government in contractual matters; civil service and personnel matters; eminent domain; planning and land use matters; public contracts; real property and development rights acquisition; intergovernmental contracts; federal and state agreements; joint ventures, partnership and grant agreements; solid waste, recycling and environmental matters and litigation; public entity bond issues; consumer affairs regulation and litigation matters; weights and measures regulation and litigation matters; election law matters; bail bond forfeiture proceedings; risk management and workers compensation matters; OPRA; and general litigation.

The successful firm(s) will provide the County of Ocean and the Ocean County Board of Commissioners with legal guidance relating to, but not necessarily limited to:

General County Counsel Services:

1. Legal research and/or advisory opinions, as needed;
2. Represent the County and/or the Board of Commissioners in matters before Federal and State courts, administrative tribunals and other forums, as requested by the County;
3. Review and/or draft County Resolutions, Ordinances and motions;
4. Review and/or draft Contracts and Shared Services Agreements;
5. Attend meetings of the Board of Commissioners, as requested;
6. Attend meetings of County departments or agencies, as requested;
7. Be readily available for meetings with County officials, department heads or their designees upon request;
8. Advise the County and the Board of Commissioners regarding changes in State or Federal law or regulations, as well as court decisions that may impact the County; and
9. Perform any other legal services as directed and authorized by the County.

Services shall be provided on a fee-for-service basis. The County makes no representation or guarantee regarding the amount of work, number of hours, or total compensation that will be authorized under the contract.

The County of Ocean is accepting only electronic proposals for this RFQ. Submitting your proposal manually is cause for rejection.

You may only submit one (1) proposal. DO NOT submit a hard copy of your electronic submission.

All responses to the Request for Qualifications ("RFQ") must be submitted electronically and must be received prior to **4:00pm, prevailing time** on the date on which they are to be unsealed.

The County's preferred method of document submission is **DocuSign**.

Evaluation Criteria

• Qualifications of the individuals who will perform the tasks and the amounts of their respective participation; 30% of total
• Experience in providing the services requested by the County and references related thereto; 30% of total
• A statement of the proposer’s understanding of the Scope of Work and the ability to perform the tasks in a timely fashion, including staffing and familiarity with the subject matter and the County; 20% of total
• Location (distance) of primary office in relation to the County administrative offices; 10% of total
• Thoroughness and completeness of the applicant’s submittal. 10% of total

Ocean County Board of Commissioners will make award within sixty (60) days after receipt of proposals.