Minority Firms Vying for Piece of Bailout

LAW.COM
Treasury Department to review use of firms as it doles out work
Sheri Qualters
10-27-2008

Minority- and women-owned law firms are vying for work from the $250 billion bailout plan approved by Congress as the U.S. Treasury Department meets a congressional directive to farm out work to minority and women contractors.Under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the Treasury Department will buy loans from banks across the United States under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). It has the authority to appoint companies to manage portfolios of troubled assets.The Treasury Department will evaluate companies applying to manage portfolios of troubled assets partly on how they plan to utilize women- and minority-owned vendors -- including law firms -- as subcontractors, said department spokeswoman Jennifer Zuccarelli."From there we'd determine where we'd need to hire [more] minority- and women-owned firms," Zuccarelli said.Although the act contains no target contracting percentage for minority- and women-owned businesses, it directs the department to develop procedures for including such businesses "to the maximum extent practicable." The Treasury Department hired New York's Simpson Thacher & Bartlett as a legal adviser for the overall implementation of the act. It's unclear at this point whether the department will directly hire minority- and women-owned businesses or mirror the process it is using for the asset managers by requiring Simpson Thacher to find its own subcontractors. [To see the entire story, go to: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202425567693]