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Select Board narrows legal-services interviews; schedules April 2 public interviews
Summary
After a qualification-based procurement process, the Select Board scheduled public interviews on April 2 for Harrington & Heap, KP Law and Clifford & Kenny (labor) and discussed transition timing and retainer negotiation for town legal services.
The Town of Mansfield Select Board reviewed responses to a request for qualifications (RFQ) for town legal services and scheduled candidate interviews for April 2.
Town staff described the procurement as qualification-based and said submissions were opened March 11 and vetted against minimum RFQ requirements. The board received five respondent firms: Brooks and Durensis (recorded spelling in submissions), Gay and Gay (town-counsel only), Harrington & Heap (both town and labor counsel), KP Law (both town and labor counsel) and Clifford & Kenny (labor-only). The board discussed options to interview two finalists or to bring in additional firms if top choices were not satisfactory after interviews.
Select Board members raised transition timing and implementation concerns, including an expected transition period for a new counsel and the possibility of an award in April with a negotiated effective start date (board members discussed a target of July 1 as a possible transition completion date). Town staff said transition meetings with department heads would be part of the onboarding and that some firms offered no-cost transition work to avoid charging hourly rates for the handover.
At the meeting the board voted to invite Harrington & Heap, KP Law and Clifford & Kenny (labor) to the April 2 select board meeting for interviews; the board asked staff to provide interview templates and to collect suggested questions from members in advance. The board agreed interviews would occur near the end of the April 2 agenda so candidates could attend and observe the meeting beforehand; members discussed a cap on interview time, suggesting 15–20 minutes per firm including questions.
Board members discussed budget considerations and negotiating the retainer; staff said firms were open to negotiating pricing and retainer scope during contract discussions. The board also directed staff to prepare reference checks and deliver the evaluation materials to members in advance of interviews.
