In a recent request for proposal (RFP), the Regents of the University of California call for “legal hold and eDiscovery” services for the University of California Legal team. Among the takeaways:
- UC Legal (UCL) is a “service organization” dedicated to helping its clients – the corporate entity of the regents and, essentially, all university officials. In this RFP, the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) Office of General Counsel (OGC) seeks “eDiscovery software, as well as contract with a managed service provider (MSP)” to assist the university after implementation with “day-to-day eDiscovery operations,” per the RFP. The software’s major functionality should include “litigation/legal hold tracking and management, preservation in-place, collection, early case assessment (ECA), eDiscovery review (including data processing, analytics and review),” plus data production. The MSP must also help the university on overflow work and be responsible for project management, data processing, managed data review and data productions. The OGC may make more than one award to multiple suppliers.
- Respondents must have been in business for at least five years, with newer companies providing documented experience and success. Experience with other academic and/or higher education institutions is highly desirable. Services must be administered in the U.S. Vendors must also confirm their abilities to provide independent third-party audit reports, “such as SOC2 Type II, ISO 27001 demonstrating that appropriate information security safeguards and controls are in place.” This same documentation may be required of subcontractors.
- More specifically, OGC’s legal hold tracking software requirements include SAS cloud-based deployment with at least 99.9 percent up time, single sign-on, an unlimited number of legal holds, granular permission capabilities, and the ability to create, manage and track legal holds. OGC’s requirements for eDiscovery software include SAS deployment, “separation and segregation” of UC and customer data, 20 end-user licenses to start, data staging/transferring environment/file transfer protocol, and the enhanced ability to manage and control eDiscovery data, data analytics and data collections. With respect to managed service requirements, OGC needs to have an experienced managed review team in place and to maintain response times ranging from two business hours to one business day on aspects of service-level agreements.
- The contract value is not stated, though the university indicates it will choose the “best overall value” by comparing the differences between solution features and supplier attributes, “striking the most advantageous balance between expected performance and the overall requirements of the university.” The contract term is anticipated to be five years, although UC may extend or renew the pact to a maximum of 10 years. Questions are due by 4 p.m. Thursday, and answers will follow Oct. 8. Responses to the RFP are due by 12 p.m. Oct. 29. Finalists will be notified Nov. 15-19. Finalist presentations are slated for Dec. 6-17, with an anticipated award date of Jan. 3-7 and start date of Feb. 7.
