I. Overview

Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS) extends this Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Consultant to conduct a Compensation Analysis. The Consultant will work with SLLS’ management and Board of Directors Personnel Committee.

SLLS is a nonprofit tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization that provides high quality legal assistance to people with low-income in civil matters. SLLS serves clients in twenty-two parishes in southeast Louisiana from six main offices (Baton Rouge, Covington, Gretna, Hammond, Houma, and New Orleans). SLLS works to remove barriers to opportunity, ensuring access to shelter, economic security, safety and health through direct legal representation in civil cases, policy advocacy, and community legal education. SLLS has 160+ employee of which about 70% are lawyers and engages hundreds of volunteer attorneys and dozens of law students every year.

Under SLLS’ current leadership, its salary scale was refreshed in 2018, 2020, and 2022 with a $2,000 lump sum salary supplement for all staff in 2023, and in 2024 a revised salary scale was effective setting salaries to 60% of the New Orleans non-profit and government market. Excluding its leadership positions which are off the salary scale, SLLS outlined new positions under the criteria Staff & Admin I, Staff & Admin II, Finance Staff, Lead Attorneys, Staff Attorneys, Managing Attorneys, and Social Workers. We have a maximum starting salary for new hires up to 15 years of experience. SLLS increased the annual steps for Staff & Admin I to $850, Staff & Admin II and Finance to $985, and $2000 for Managing Attorneys. The $1,800 for Staff Attorney, Lead Attorney, and Social Workers stayed at $1,800.

II. This Project

SLLS seeks a consultant to:

1) Update our salary scale for fifteen (15) positions with a range at 50% through 75% of the comparable nonprofit and government market in greater New Orleans for a 37.50 work week.

2) To review whether the Manager’s additional compensation of $4,000 from a Staff Attorney to a Managing Attorney is sufficient and make recommendations regarding a potential tiered Managing Attorney compensation structure. We have some managers that supervise one staff member while others may manage up to fourteen. Some managers also supervise a physical office in addition to managing staff. All SLLS managers currently receive the same $4,000 salary increase above a staff attorney.

III. Steps and Timeline

The planned timeline for this project is:

Deadline for proposal submission July 25, 2025
- Direct Questions and submit proposals to Shannan Latino, Human Resources Manager at slatino@slls.org
Selection and identification of terms of engagement August 1, 2025
Completion of Analysis October 31, 2025

Note: Timeline is subject to change based on SLLS and consultant schedules.
Recommendations may be delivered in stages, including:
Stage 1 – Salary Scale Positions, Stage 2 – Recommendations for Managers’ salaries.

V. Proposal Content

Responses to this Request for Proposal should be no longer than 8 pages long (shorter proposals are welcome) and include the following:

Firm description, including how long the firm has been in business, specialty areas, and experience providing compensation analysis services to not-for-profit and other professional organizations.
Identification of the staff who will work on the project. Describe their experience, education, training, and professional certifications
Description of your engagement with mission-driven organizations where organizational values have significantly impacted compensation structure and how that orientation informed your work.
Statement of your understanding of the work required and how you will approach this project, including work plan and timeline.
Three current or former clients who we may contact as references.
Statement of your fees for this work, including an indication of whether you propose a flat fee or hourly fee. SLLS prefers a flat fee proposal. If the proposed fee is hourly based, provide the estimated number of hours required. Please include the responsibilities and services covered by these fees.

VI. Evaluation Criteria and Award of Contract

SLLS may elect to schedule interviews with potential consultants prior to awarding a final contract. Please include contact information for scheduling purposes in the RFP.

Proposals will be evaluated upon the contractor’s responsiveness to the RFP, qualifications, demonstrated experience with similar projects, and total price quoted for all items covered by the RFP. Award of the contract resulting from the RFP will be based upon the most responsive contract that is most advantageous to SLLS in terms of cost, functionality, experience, and quality of past work.

SLLS ideally seeks a firm that understands its needs as a nonprofit and legal services organization and is committed to our mission of achieving justice and social change by combating poverty.

SLLS reserves the right to accept or reject any proposals and to waive any minor discrepancies or technicalities in the proposal or specifications, when deemed to be in the best interest of SLLS. We also reserve the right to negotiate with all respondents to the RFP and reject any or all offers and discontinue this RFP process without obligation or liability to any respondent.