Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, May 15, 2003
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Las Vegas Review Journal
May 15, 2003
Law firm sues to represent Yucca
New York-based lawyers want DOE contract award
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- A law firm that has been trying to obtain legal work on the Yucca Mountain Project moved Wednesday to block the Energy Department from hiring anyone else for the job.
If any law firm is granted a multimillion-dollar contract to represent DOE in licensing the proposed Nevada high-level nuclear waste repository, the New York-based LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae contends it should be the one.
The firm's attorneys filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking an injunction to prevent the Energy Department from doing anything different.
The firm requested a ruling before May 30, when DOE has indicated it could complete its search for a law firm to prepare licensing documents and defend them before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Yucca Mountain Project has been without outside legal representation since November 2001, when the Winston & Strawn firm departed amid conflict-of-interest allegations.
LeBoeuf, Lamb was a spurned bidder when DOE awarded a $16.5 million contract to Winston & Strawn in 1999. The New York firm subsequently filed a lawsuit challenging the award.
When Winston & Strawn left the Yucca program, LeBoeuf, Lamb argued it should be hired as a replacement since it had scored a perfect 1,000 points in technical competition.
The Energy Department resisted, and the matter remains in court.
After fighting for years in court, DOE is not expected to recruit LeBoeuf, Lamb in its new search, officials said.
Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said DOE will respond to LeBoeuf, Lamb in court, "explaining why their contention is incorrect."
Davis said he had no further information on DOE's position.
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Las Vegas SUN
May 15, 2003
Law firm seeking Yucca job takes case to court
LAS VEGAS SUN
WASHINGTON -- An international law firm that has long coveted a job with the Energy Department's Yucca Mountain Project is going to court -- again -- to get the work.
At issue is highly specialized legal assistance the department needs to assemble a license application to construct Yucca, the proposed site of a national nuclear waste repository. The department plans to submit the application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by December 2004.
The $16.5 million legal contract initially was awarded to Chicago-based Winston & Strawn in 1999, but the firm quit the job two years later amid allegations that it had a pro-Yucca conflict of interest, a charge the firm strongly denied.
New York-based LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & Macrae had sued in March 2000 to obtain the job, arguing it was the most qualified of any firms. That matter is still pending. The department has not hired another firm, but it intends to, according to an April 30 letter from Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.
In the letter, Abraham wrote to explain to the top House lawmaker that the department intends to use an "informal" review process to hire a law firm, as opposed to the "more formalized" competitive bid process required by law. In an official "Determinations and Findings" document signed by Abraham that accompanied the letter, Abraham noted that federal law allows for informal processes when warranted by special circumstances.
"We intend to award a contract to a law firm using a competitive selection process that is specially tailored to this unique and highly important endeavor," Abraham wrote.
That's code jargon for "DOE will not be hiring LeBoeuf for the work," according to a legal motion filed Wednesday by LeBoeuf Lamb in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The motion is an effort to obtain an injunction that would bar the department from hiring any other firm.
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State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
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