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Procurement

Across Europe, the scale of public procurement is huge. Many major projects are underpinned by it. Billions of Euros are spread across a wide range of activity such as waste, education and health. Many other jurisdictions similarly control public expenditure procurement methods.

The role of the public procurement function within public bodies has taken on a new importance - the pressure is on to buy more smartly, spend less and collaborate with others in purchasing. This often means bigger, higher profile procurement activity perhaps using competitive dialogue, frameworks or central purchasing arrangements.

Advice is vital. For those who are looking to buy, there are various rules and regulations surrounding the procurement process. For those wishing to take advantage of opportunities, pragmatic advice is needed on how to maximise the chance of success.

Eversheds Sutherland has a dedicated public procurement group with lawyers across Europe working on major procurement matters both from a non contentious compliance aspect and on contentious disputes. It is a team which has consistently led the field in terms of innovative solutions to public procurement issues. What really sets us apart is that we provide commercial, balanced and strategic procurement solutions based on the impact of the current legislation and the application/understanding of the EU Directives and associated case law.

Experience

Our team across Europe has strong sector experience in local government, education, health, regeneration, defence and transport which complements and is complemented by the sector focus within our procurement teams with key individuals having wider governance and contractual backgrounds in the sectors. Some key examples include:

  • Advising on the PLN 4.9 billion National Toll Collection System project, the largest public procurement project in Poland in 2011.
  • We advise London Legacy Development Corporation responsible for managing the London 2012 Olympic Legacy across the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
  • We have extensive experience assisting private tenderers with procurement queries during tendering opportunities, including German company Scheidt-Bachmann during participation in tenders for the supply of electronic ticketing systems and legal assistance to Smiths-Medical Italia during participation in tenders for supplies of electric-medical equipment.
  • We have provided assistance with tenderers and court proceedings for several companies including ERG, the Australian multinational tender company of Atac for management of the electronic ticketing system in Rome.

Our contentious experience is very strong across all of our European offices having acted in many published cases. The team also work in many challenge cases for private sector clients securing non-litigated solutions and settlements. An key example of our experience litigation is acting as defence counsel in lawsuits (before the Lombardy and Lazio Regional Administrative Court and Council of State) for Lavanderie dell'Alto Adige S.p.A. in appeals against the award of tenders (by ARPA Lombardia and AMA SpA) for the supply of industrial laundry services.

Commercial Law InView

Commercial Law InView - commerical law videos

The work we undertake in Eversheds Sutherland Commercial group is wide ranging and so we thought it would be helpful to introduce the team on screen in our dedicated video gallery, Commercial Law InView.