DOE Awarded Contract to Firm
Despite Conflict of Interest, Says IG

The Department of Energy has awarded a $109 million legal-services contract to Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, despite still-existing conflicts that kept the firm out of a similar contract nine years ago, according to an April 3 report by the Energy Department’s inspector general:

In September 2007, the Department awarded a legal services contract to a law firm, Morgan, Lewis, and Bockius LLP (Morgan Lewis), in connection with the Yucca Mountain Project. Morgan Lewis is to assist in preparing the license application to be submitted to the NRC. The Department awarded the contract using an informal process that was “other than competitive” to evaluate different law firms, rather than the more formalized competitive process set forth in the Competition in Contracting Act. Prior to the award of the contract, the Department notified Congress in April 2007 of its intent to follow the informal process. The notification was pursuant to 41 U.S.C. Section 253(c)(7), and included the Department’s determination and findings that proceeding in this manner was necessary in the public interest.

As part of the pre-award requirements, Morgan Lewis disclosed potential conflicts of interest due to its representation of commercial utilities in the spent nuclear fuel litigation. The litigation related to cases filed by utilities against the Government for its partial breach of contract regarding the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. While many of these cases had been resolved, others were still pending resolution…

Ultimately, the Department hired Morgan Lewis, despite the firm’s representation of utilities in the spent nuclear fuel litigation.

Popularity: 2%

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 10:03 am and is filed under Environment, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.