A municipality engaged a law firm for legal services in the field of building and construction without a tender but after authorization from the relevant commissions in the municipality and after proposals from other firms were considered.
The Court held that the engagement between the municipality and the law firm falls under the exemption for contracts that require special knowledge or expertise and therefore does not require a tender. Contracts with local municipalities are subject to a tender obligation, but this obligation has a number of exceptions, in order to allow the municipality to engage in contracts which characteristics are not suitable for a tender due to urgency, uniqueness or special circumstances. One of the exceptions is for events in which the contract is executed for the purpose of performing a professional work that requires special knowledge and expertise or a relationship of trust. However, the exemption from the tender obligation does not exempt the municipality from the requirement to perform a two-stage process of approvals and a competitive appeal to a several bidders in order to ensure equal opportunities. Here, the contract between the municipality and the law firm was for the purpose of providing expert legal advice in a specific legal field, as opposed to general legal advice, and the contract was made after the approvals were received by the municipal committees and after receiving several quotes from various firms. Thus, the contract meets the conditions of the exemption because it was performed for the purpose of performing professional work that requires knowledge and expertise, and after a procedure that ensured equal opportunity to several offices in the market, and there is no justification for disqualifying the contract due to lack of tender.