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Presentation, discussion, and possible action on approving new outside counsel contracts, and delegation of contract signature authority to the Executive Director
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RECOMMENDED ACTION
recommendation
WHEREAS, the Department has outside legal counsel contracts covering six legal services: Single Family and Multifamily Bond Counsel, Single Family and Multifamily Tax Counsel (previously part of Bond Counsel Agreement), Bond Disclosure Counsel, Multifamily Document Preparation Counsel, and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Counsel;
WHEREAS, the contracts with outside counsel are made every two years, with the previous contracts ending on August 31, 2025, and new contracts can be formed only with the permission of and through the Office of the Texas Attorney General (OAG);
WHEREAS, Requests for Qualification for new contracts were published in July, responded to in August, were reviewed and scored by independent committee members in August, with the result being that the previous outside counsel for four of the six legal services received the highest scores, and LIHTC Counsel and Multifamily Doc Prep Counsel received no responses; and
WHEREAS, a complete “request to retain” has been filed with the OAG regarding the outside counsel for each of the six legal services and the OAG will presently issue the contracts for signature with an effective date of September 1, 2025.
NOW, therefore, it is hereby
RESOLVED, that the Board approves the award of outside counsel contracts as described herein, and delegates to the Executive Director the authority to sign the outside counsel contracts as approved by the OAG.
BACKGROUND
As a result of the Request for Qualification publication and response process performed recently, the following firms and legal services have been requested to be retained through the OAG:
Single Family and Multifamily Bond Counsel: Bracewell LLP.
Single Family and Multifamily Tax Counsel: Bracewell LLP.
Bond Disclosure Counsel: McCall, Parkhurst & Horton, LLP.
Single Family Document Preparation Counsel: Robertson Anschutz Vetters. LLC
Multifamily Document Preparation Counsel: No Responses to RFQ; however, Best Best & Krieger, LLP has confirmed they wish to continue to serve as MF Doc Prep Counsel.
Low Income Housing Tax Credit Counsel: No Responses to RFQ; however, Bracewell LLP has confirmed they wish to continue serving as LIHTC Counsel.
The scope of services in each of these areas remains largely unchanged when compared to the 2023 contract. The OAG sets the maximum hourly billable rate for attorneys, which has not changed for 2025. Accordingly, the “not to exceed” amounts of the forthcoming contracts are the same as the final, amended versions of the 2023 contracts, with the exception that Bond Counsel and Tax Counsel "not to exceed" amounts have been split, though still total the amount of the previous ‘combined’ agreement.