Public Bidding
The Law Firm of Erickson Law Firm A.P.C. has provided advice to school districts regarding all aspects of the bidding and procurement process. The firm routinely provides guidance and advice to districts regarding the purchase of goods, services and property, as well as the sale of surplus property. In addition, the firm has also advised and represented school districts when it is discovered that a process was not followed, whether it be to provide step-by-step instructions for taking corrective action to validate the transaction when possible, or initiating action to void the transaction and recoup the expenditure of public funds from a third party when the transaction is void or unauthorized by the governing board.
We have experience advising clients in bid protests and have successfully represented public sector clients in litigation of bid protests based on a claim that the low bid should have been rejected by our client as non-responsive. We have handled numerous informal and formal bid protests issues for districts. Some of our recent bid protest issues have been for West Hills Community College District and Solano Community College District.
Construction Agreements
We have extensive experience with all types of construction agreements, including the traditional design-bid-build agreements, the multi-purpose agreement, the construction management at risk agreement, the design-build agreement, and the lease-leaseback agreement.
Construction Contracts
We have drafted terms and conditions (i.e., General Conditions and Special Conditions) for use in construction contracts by numerous school districts and community college districts. We have also reviewed construction contract terms and conditions proposed by architects and suggested revisions on behalf of our clients. Further, we have negotiated various different types of construction contracts, including the negotiation of contracts for installation of energy management systems in school districts.
We have also represented our public sector clients in litigation involving CEQA and environmental issues. We have assisted our clients in all manners of pre-bid, bidding, and contract award issues. In this regard, we have evaluated and advised our clients on bid protests, and we have assisted our clients to establish and apply pre-qualification standards to construction contractors. We have also successfully assisted our public sector clients with advice and guidance on the administration of construction contract claims.
Real Estate/Land Law
Purchase and Sale
We have represented clients in the sale of school and college district real property to private developers and other public agencies. We have also assisted our clients on several occasions to acquire real property for the construction of new campuses or the expansion of existing campuses. In one instance, we were asked to attempt to re-negotiate an existing contract in the effort to attempt to obtain more favorable financial terms for the school district. Our firm has also worked in numerous contract negotiations for real property easements, licenses and other contract issues such as leases and sales. Some of these recent negotiations related to a contract negotiation for an easement with the City of Fairfield and a contract lease renegotiation and termination issue with the California Department of Prisons.
Our firm is further well versed in construction law from project inception through litigation of claims, if necessary, including bid protests, land procurement, and other public works issues. We have worked with districts and administrators for real property procurement issues and contracts, publics work contract issues and bid protests. Several of the firm’s public sector clients have already passed Proposition 39 bonds or will be placing a bond initiative on a future ballot. We have provided legal counseling on the procurement of land for a new campus. Our firm has been involved in the purchase of land for a charter school and a recent procurement and negotiation of the transfer of real property for college administration buildings. We have also worked for the transfer of easements and licenses for real district property, as well as provided legal services associated with the solicitation for a program/project manager, architect and construction manager. Our firm has also provided legal advice relating to alternate project delivery methods, such as construction manager at risk and design-build as alternates to the traditional design, bid, build project delivery method.
Additionally, we provide services in drafting and review of the various RFP/RFQs for program/project managers, architect/engineers, construction managers, inspectors of record, contractors and specialty consultants (i.e., surveyors, geotechnical engineers, asbestos, CPM scheduling consultants, environmental impact statements).
For example, in 2002, voters approved the issue of general obligation bonds under
The attorneys at Erickson Law Firm A.P.C. have also provided legal assistance during the design, procurement, construction, and post-construction phases of new campus and the renovation work on the existing campuses at West Hills Community College District and Solano Community College District.
Leasing
Over the years we have assisted various clients to lease land and facilities for use by the district. For example, we assisted the Chabot Las Positas Community College to obtain a lease for use of a facility for the district’s administrative offices.