Chapter 422

2007 -- S 0577 AS AMENDED

Enacted 07/07/07

A N A C T

RELATING TO PUBLIC PROPERTY AND WORKS - STATE PURCHASES

Introduced By: Senators P Fogarty, Goodwin, Gallo, Perry, and Connors

Date Introduced: February 15, 2007

It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

     SECTION 1. Section 37-2-70 of the General Laws in Chapter 37-2 entitled "State

Purchases" is hereby amended to read as follows:

37-2-70. Professional services -- Legal. -- (a) Before a state governmental entity

procures the services of an attorney, a state agency shall demonstrate to the satisfaction of the

chief purchasing officer or a public agency shall demonstrate to the satisfaction of the directors of

the public agency the following:

      (1) The need for the services, including the scope of the services to be performed;

      (2) That no legal personnel employed by the state on a full-time basis is available to

perform those services;

      (3) That funding is available, indicating from which sources the funding is to be

provided;

      (4) That attorneys to be engaged meet the following minimum requirements:

      (i) Appropriate professional licensing;

      (ii) Competence to perform those services as reflected by formal training and education,

general experience, experience in providing the required services, and the qualifications and

competence of persons who would be assigned to perform the services; and

      (iii) Ability to perform the services as reflected by workload and availability of adequate

personnel, equipment, and facilities to perform the services expeditiously.

      (b) The attorney shall enter into a letter of engagement with the state. The letter of

engagement shall state the rate of compensation, the scope of the services to be performed for the

compensation, and provision for the payment of expenses incurred in connection with legal

services. The letter of engagement shall certify that the rate of compensation does not exceed the

rate of compensation charged by counsel to his or her preferred public or private clients. A letter

of engagement shall not be for more than one year.

      (c) Nothing herein shall prevent the issuance of a public solicitation of requests for

qualifications or the conduct of pricing negotiations prior to contract award. All requests for

qualifications shall be solicited through utilization of the Rhode Island vendor information

program (RIVIP) as set forth in section 37-2-17.1.

(d) Each state department and each state government entity which procures the services

of an attorney who is not an employee of that department or body shall, on or before March 1 of

each year, prepare and submit to the director of the department of administration an annual report

of outside legal services, which report shall identify and set forth:

(i) The name, firm, affiliation, and address of each attorney or law firm retained by the

department or entity during the previous calendar year and/or of each attorney or law firm to

whom the department or entity paid any fees or other payments during the previous calendar year;

(ii) The amount of all fees or other payments from public funds made by the department

or entity to any such attorney or law firm during the previous calendar year.

(e) The director of the department of administration shall annually compile all annual

reports of outside legal services and present them, together with an executive summary thereof, to

the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, the president of the senate, and the

chairpersons of the senate and house committees on finance, not later than May 1 of each year.

     SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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LC02078

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