The purpose of this Request for Proposals (“RFP”) is to obtain a comprehensive, cloud‑based Legal Case Management System (“CMS” or “system”) capable of meeting the operational, security, reporting, and workflow needs of the City of Norfolk (“City”) Attorney’s Office. The City seeks a Software‑as‑a‑Service (SaaS) solution that includes implementation, configuration, data migration, training, ongoing maintenance, hosting, and licensing.
The System must also support modern legal operations, including digital case files, integrated document and email management, configurable workflows, advanced search and conflict checking, and rule‑based calendaring.
The selected CMS will support the City’s transition to a fully digital, paperless office, streamline legal operations, and provide secure access to case information from any authorized location or device.
Background
The City Attorney’s Office (“CAO”) serves as the legal representative for the City of Norfolk, the Norfolk City Council, and multiple City boards, commissions, and partner organizations. CAO attorneys defend the City in litigation, initiate litigation on behalf of the City, prepare ordinances, draft and negotiate contracts, provide legal advice, and manage numerous legal workflows and requests.
The CAO processes approximately 4,500 matters annually with a staff of approximately 38 employees, including attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants, and administrative personnel.
The CAO currently uses a FoxPro-based case management system originally developed in the 1980s and later modified using VB.NET. Although the legacy system allows basic matter tracking, it lacks the ability to store, share, manage, or produce documents, and requires multiple external applications to complete daily work. The system’s limitations impede the City’s efforts to modernize operations and achieve a paperless workflow.
Project Details
- Reference ID: 11118-0-2027
- Department: City Attorney's Office
- Department Head: Bernard Pishko (City Attorney)
Important Dates
- Questions Due: 2026-06-15T21:00:00.000Z
- Answers Posted By: 2026-06-19T21:00:00.000Z
Evaluation Criteria
- Offeror’s Experience in Providing Similar Services (10 pts) —
The Offeror shall provide three (3) to ten (10) examples of cloud‑based legal case management or comparable system implementations completed within the past five (5) years that are similar in scope, complexity, and data migration requirements to this project. Preference will be given to projects performed for governmental or non-profit institutions.
For each project, provide:
- Name of client organization and sector (government/non‑profit preferred or other public‑sector legal environments).
- Contact name, email address, and phone number for reference.
- Description of the system implemented and services provided including modules deployed, workflow configurations, and integrations performed.
- Total value of the implementation and annual support/maintenance with a breakdown of major cost components if available.
- Description of any known data breaches or security incidents associated with the software for that client, including date, scope, and corrective actions and whether the root cause was vendor‑controlled or third‑party‑controlled.
- Experience of the Project Team (10 pts) —
The Offeror shall provide the following information regarding the proposed project team:
- Resumes (one page each) for the Project Manager, Training Lead, and other key personnel proposed highlighting relevant experience with cloud‑based legal or public‑sector system implementations.
- Description of each team member’s relevant experience on similar cloud system implementations including specific modules, integrations, workflows, or data migration tasks they supported.
- Percentage of time each key team member will be assigned to the Project and confirmation of availability during critical project phases (configuration, migration, testing, go‑live).
- Project organizational chart showing reporting relationships including escalation paths and primary points of contact for the City.
- Statement indicating whether team members have previously worked together successfully on projects of similar scope or within public‑sector legal or case‑management environments.
- Implementation Approach (10 pts) —
The Offeror shall describe how the system will be implemented, including a clear explanation of the implementation methodology, phases, and City/Contractor responsibilities:
- Overall implementation methodology and phases with expected timelines and key decision points.
- Approach to system configuration to meet City requirements including identification of configurable modules, workflows, and required City inputs.
- Approach to data migration, including mapping, cleansing, testing, and validation with a detailed explanation of legacy data handling, staged loads, and reconciliation steps.
- Approach to system integrations (as applicable) including APIs, authentication (e.g., Entra ID), Microsoft 365 integrations, and any third‑party connectors.
- Training approach and materials to be provided including end‑user, administrator, and workflow‑specific training, with estimated hours and delivery format.
- Approach to system updates, change management, and communication with the City including methods used to notify the City of updates, release cycles, and required City actions.
- Identification of any subcontractors, their roles, and how they will be managed including how subcontractor deliverables will be coordinated and quality‑checked.
- Staffing resources and capacity to complete the project with identification of staff availability, allocation, and any backup personnel for key roles.
- Implementation Plan and Timeline (15 pts) —
The Offeror shall submit a City‑specific implementation plan including a detailed description of activities, deliverables, and interdependencies across all phases of the project.
- Detailed project timeline with major milestones identifying phases, start/end dates, and critical path elements.
- Description of project planning, execution, configuration, testing, and go‑live activities including required City participation at each stage.
- Training schedule, format (remote or in‑person), and learning objectives aligned with the City’s training requirements and implementation timeline.
- Data migration timeline, required City participation, capacity limits, and validation steps including mapping, reconciliation, test loads, and final migration cutover processes.
- Communication protocols and issue‑resolution process including escalation paths, meeting cadence, and documentation standards.
- Description of data integrity testing methods including verification of field mapping, record counts, attachments, and metadata accuracy.
- Narrative Project Plan describing tasks, responsible parties (City vs. Offeror), critical path, dependencies, and deliverables with clearly documented assumptions and prerequisites.
- Description of how the proposed payment schedule aligns with the Project Plan including milestone definitions tied to measurable deliverables.
- A Gantt chart (PDF) matching the proposed timeline that visually identifies milestones, dependencies, resource assignments, and critical path.
- System Capabilities (25 pts) —
- The Offeror shall provide a detailed description of how the proposed cloud‑based software meets the City’s functional and technical requirements including narrative explanations, system screenshots, and descriptions of major workflows.
At a minimum, provide:
- Completed Attachment H (Technical Requirements) and Attachment I (Functional Requirements) with all responses clearly marked as ‘Meets,’ ‘Meets with Configuration,’ ‘Meets with Customization,’ or ‘Does Not Meet.’.
- Narrative explaining how the software fulfills the City's project goals and Statement of Work including how the proposed CMS supports digital case files, document management, Microsoft 365 integration, workflow automation, calendaring, conflict checks, and reporting.
- Screenshots illustrating key workflows and functionality such as email filing from Outlook, document generation, case/matter dashboard views, and litigation calendar management.
- Description of available and recommended options or configurations including configurable workflows, user roles, dashboards, templates, and automation features.
- Description of permission groups and security roles configurable by the system administrator including role‑based access controls, matter‑level permissions, and audit capabilities.
- Description of reports available out of the box, and requirements for developing additional reports including dashboards, scheduled reports, export formats, and any embedded analytics capabilities.
- Supported browsers and client environments noting full support for current versions of Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, and confirming no desktop installation is required.
- Description of hosting, storage, file size limits, retention options, and data export capabilities including maximum attachment size, available storage tiers, backup schedules, and supported export formats (PDF, ZIP, CSV, etc.).
- Description of legacy data handling/migration approach addressing structured data, unstructured documents, metadata, email, and any multimedia content.
- Mandatory Requirements - Attachment I (10 pts) —
The Offeror shall complete Attachment I (Functional Matrix) in full with clear and accurate responses for each requirement.
Scoring will be based on the percentage of mandatory requirements met as evaluated through the Offeror’s completed Functional Matrix and supporting narrative.
For any requirement not met natively, the Offeror shall provide sufficient detail to allow the City to understand feasibility, timeline impacts, and cost implications:
- Describe whether the requirement is addressed through configuration, customization, or third‑party tools and identify any associated risks or limitations.
- Describe the impact on the implementation timeline and system usability including estimated effort hours and whether additional City participation is required.
- Identify any additional costs associated including recurring subscription costs, one‑time configuration costs, or required third‑party licensing fees.
- System Maintenance and Support (10 pts) —
The Offeror shall provide a comprehensive description of the maintenance and support model for the proposed cloud‑based system:
- A detailed escalation process for Level One, Level Two, and Level Three issues, with examples including communication timelines, responsible support tiers, and methods for tracking escalated tickets.
- Description of support services available during and after the warranty period, including hours and communication methods and identification of any differences between standard support, premium support, and emergency after‑hours support.
- Proposed Service Level Agreement (SLA) for response and resolution times including target metrics for uptime/availability, severity definitions, and remedies for unmet service levels.
- Description of the software’s update and release process, including how update notices are provided to the City and the methods used to validate updates prior to deployment in the production environment.
- Description of the vendor’s policy for software lifecycle management and feature changes including release frequency, end‑of‑support practices, and communication processes for deprecations or major feature upgrades.
- Pricing (10 pts) —
The Offeror shall submit a complete and itemized pricing proposal that aligns with the project implementation plan and long‑term support expectations:
- Milestone‑based pricing for implementation services, including all labor needed to configure the system, migrate legacy data, integrate, test, and train with milestones clearly tied to measurable deliverables (e.g., configuration complete, data migration testing complete, user acceptance complete).
- Itemized annual pricing for subscription, support, and maintenance for years 1–5 including any pricing tied to user counts, storage volume, or optional modules.
- Pricing for additional training, data conversion, or integration services the City may request with hourly rates, per‑unit pricing (if applicable), and any minimum engagement thresholds.
- Pricing for storage tiers or file size overages, if applicable including costs for expanded storage, archival storage, and any limits on attachment size.
Submission Requirements
- VENDOR RESPONSE (required) —
Please upload your ENTIRE proposal here as one PDF document.
- REDACTED PROPOSAL —
If you are requesting certain portions of your proposal containing trade secrets or proprietary information to be withheld from release under Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA), please upload your redacted proposal here as one PDF document AND state the reasons why protection is necessary. If you do not submit a redacted proposal your entire proposal will be available pursuant to VFOIA. Any redactions will be subject to review by the City Attorney’s Office.
NOTE: Pricing cannot be withheld as trade secret or proprietary information. The entire proposal cannot be designated as trade secret or proprietary information.
- Pricing (required) —
- Provide milestone pricing for implementation services, to include all labor, equipment, and supplies necessary to successfully implement the system and complete the required trainings.
- Provide itemized annual pricing for all available levels of support and maintenance plans offered for the first five (5) years of the Agreement.
- Provide pricing for additional data conversion and training services which may be requested by the City throughout the term of the Agreement.
- Attachment H - Technical Requirements (required) —
Please download the below documents, complete, and upload.
- Attachment I - Functional Requirements (required) —
Please download the below documents, complete, and upload. Document MUST be submitted in excel, no exceptions!
- Service Agreements (required) —
Upload ALL documents that will require signatures for contracting, to include Service Agreements, Service Levels, Master Agreements, Use Agreements, and or any other form that will be required as part of the contract document.
- Response Confirmation —
Each proposer is required to confirm they have included these signed forms as part of your vendor response submitted above.
- Anti-Collusion Statement (required)
- Ethics in Public Contracting (required)
- Non-Discrimination (required)
- Debarment Certification (required)
- Compliance with Federal Immigration Law (required)
- Compliance with State Law – Authorization to Transact Business in the Commonwealth of Virginia (required)
- Equal Opportunity Business Status (required)
- Bid Form (required) —
Bid submissions that do not include fully completed bid form will not be accepted. By confirming this item, you are confirming that you completed the bid form and have included it in your response above.
- Acknowledgment of Addenda and Q&A (required) —
Proposer acknowledges that they received and reviewed all Addenda and Questions and Answers
- Pricing Proposal Options (required) —
Select how you want the bidder to submit their pricing proposals