What we do

Our team of procurement lawyers can help you get the right result, offering practical advice and reducing your risks and costs.

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Keeping abreast of developments in procurement law can be difficult, but mistakes can be time consuming and costly. Our team of procurement lawyers can help you get the right result, offering practical advice and reducing your risks and costs.

Whether you need to draft an FTS notice or an ITT, advice on procurement strategy for a project, or guidance on how to bring or resolve a procurement challenge, we provide a comprehensive service covering all stages of the procurement lifecycle.

We work for a diverse range of clients across a number of sectors – including government, health, education, technology, construction, projects, energy and third sector – for contracting authorities, utilities and suppliers alike. We provide real insight and expertise, drawing on our depth and breadth of experience to provide balanced procurement advice.

We are proud of our client service. We know that up to date knowledge of the law is not enough – we are a hands-on, dedicated team with a pragmatic approach and a commitment to fairness and transparency on costs. We provide advice that is clear and easy to understand, as well as giving you with the tools and knowledge you need to save money, manage your risks and do your own job more effectively.

We are also market leaders in providing procurement webinars and training via our flagship "5 in 25" series. 

We work on a flexible basis, from advising clients on discrete procurement issues as and when they arise, to sense-checking a suite of procurement documents, through to providing ‘start to finish’ advice and guidance on a major procurement exercise or steering the defence of a procurement challenge through the courts. Here are a few examples of our services:

  • Pre market engagement – getting it right
  • Shared services and collaboration
  • Drafting or reviewing procurement documents 
  • TUPE issues
  • Design of a light touch regime procurement
  • Ad hoc advice to evaluation teams (e.g. management of site visits, interviews, clarification questions)
  • Defending a challenge (including pre-litigation strategy, merits of a claim, conduct of litigation and applications to lift an automatic suspension)
  • Contract drafting (including ensuring compliance with the procurement regulations and “future proofing” to provide maximum flexibility once the contract is operational)
  • Advice on variation of public contracts
  • Advice in relation to subsidy control

We work flexibly to suit your requirements, from acting as a consultant to providing ‘beginning to end’ advice on a bid for a significant contract, to giving ad hoc guidance as and when needed. 

Here are a few examples of our services:

  • Advice on bidding strategy
  • Decoding the evaluation process 
  • Advice on completing an ITT 
  • Advice on merits of a potential challenge 
  • Strategy around bringing a challenge 
  • Drafting of claim form and particulars of claim to commence proceedings 
  • Advising you through a claim in the High Court

A few examples of our recent experience in helping clients with their procurement issues include:

  • Leading the field with our contentious practice, acting for claimants in the high profile and successful challenge brought against the Lord Chancellor (Ministry of Justice)/Legal Aid Agency in relation to its procurement of criminal legal aid and duty solicitor contracts. This challenge ultimately led to the Government’s decision to scrap its controversial policy for a two-tier contracting arrangement for criminal legal aid.
  • Advising the Ministry of Defence on all aspects of a £1.5 billion project for the outsourcing of the all soft FM services across their entire estate. This is the part of a series of high profile MoD projects targeted at saving costs by “working smarter” through enhanced delivery of process services.
  • Advising the British Library on the (competitive dialogue) procurement of a development partner for its prime site at St Pancras in London.
  • Supporting the British Universities Finance Directors Group (the representative body for finance/procurement staff from most higher education institutions in the UK) with a comprehensive package of training focussing on the transition to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
  • Advising the Financial Conduct Authority on the business-critical (competitive dialogue) procurement of an outsourced market data processing solution.
  • Advising NHS East Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Group on an innovative competitive dialogue procurement to identify a prime provider (Virgin Care was the winning bidder) to deliver transformational service change under the Improving Lives Plan (aimed at improving patient care and experience for patients with long term health conditions and frail, older people) with a value of £280 million over 7 years.
  • Advising the University of Bournemouth on a £100 million construction project to include a facility of health and social care, a student hub and up to 1000 student residences

Our impressive client base, and the strength and depth of our practice, is illustrated by having advised almost 100 different organisations on procurement issues over the last 12 months. 

A few examples of our client sectors include:

  • Central Government (e.g. Ministry of Defence, Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Department for Work and Pensions)
  • Government Agencies and NDPBs (e.g. the Environment Agency, the British Library)
  • Higher education (e.g. University of Bournemouth, University of East Anglia, the Higher Education Procurement Academy)
  • Further education (e.g. Manchester College)
  • Health (e.g. the Department of Health, NHS England, NHS Property Services, NHS Trusts, Foundations Trusts, CCGs)
  • Private sector suppliers (e.g. Virgin Care, Abbott Laboratories Ltd.)
  • Technology (including numerous patient record projects in the health sector)
  • Construction (e.g. Willmott Dixon)
  • Charities (e.g. the British Council)
  • Regulators (e.g. the Financial Conduct Authority, the Pensions Regulator)
  • Major Utility companies