Investment Legal Services

The Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois (TRS) seeks one or more qualified law firms to provide ongoing, as‑needed investment‑related legal counsel for its $86 billion public‑pension portfolio. The engagement is expected to run for a five‑year term with optional extensions, and firms may be awarded work across a broad spectrum of private‑market fund transactions, secondary market deals, derivatives agreements, custody and securities‑lending matters, and post‑closing restructurings. TRS will evaluate proposals based on demonstrated public‑pension experience, depth of the assigned legal team, fee competitiveness, and ability to meet information‑security and diversity expectations. No minimum volume of work is guaranteed; assignments will be allocated based on expertise, availability, conflicts, and cost. • Scope: Legal advice and document negotiation for private equity, credit, real‑estate, infrastructure, venture capital, hedge funds, co‑investments, secondary transactions, derivatives (ISDA, futures, swaps), custody, securities lending, and related post‑closing matters. • Minimum qualifications: ≥5 years representing institutional investors (public pension plans preferred); licensed attorneys in relevant jurisdictions; documented information‑security program (SOC 2, ISO 27001, etc.). • Term: 5 years with discretionary extensions. • Submission deadline: 2:00 pm CST, October 7 2026 via OpenGov portal (project 281947). • Questions due: September 18 2026, 4:30 pm CST; answers posted September 23 2026. • Evaluation criteria: LP‑side/public‑pension experience (30 %), team qualifications/availability (30 %), cost/fee structure (20 %), and other factors (20 %). • Diversity encouragement: Minority, women, disabled, veteran‑owned firms strongly encouraged. • No guaranteed minimum workload; TRS may award multiple firms or none.