Procurement Solicitor

Job Introduction

DAC Beachcroft is looking to appoint an experienced solicitor to strengthen our public procurement law team, on the back of some significant client wins and growth in our team and work. Our Public procurement law team sits within our wider Health, Care and Public Law Cluster which has a presence in London, Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester and Bristol. However, it provides public procurement law advice to clients of all departments, including real estate and commercial and on a national basis. We have a thriving public sector client base, particularly in healthcare and Central Government and a large commercial client base which provides works and services to the public sector.  We regularly work on excellent quality, high profile, cutting edge procurement projects and claims that attract media attention.

Collaborative working across our national offices is at the heart of what we do and, working with some of the highest ranked lawyers in the sector, there are constant opportunities for development and growth. The DAC Beachcroft Flex Forward approach means most of the team work flexibly either remotely or on a hybrid basis, spending some time in one or more of our offices, allowing them to find a life that works.

The team advises clients on non-contentious and contentious procurement matters but we are seeking a procurement lawyer who will predominantly take on a non-contentious matter list while working with our team of procurement litigators on procurement challenges and Judicial Reviews involving procurement law where necessary. Experience with advising on Subsidy Control law and/or a willingness to develop experience and expertise in this area would also be an advantage.

Role Responsibility

The role is varied and the main responsibilities include:

• Undertaking, progressing and managing a diverse workload of non-contentious procurement matters of varying complexity and scale advising contracting authorities and entities in a variety of sectors, including health, central government, local government and utilities
• Undertaking, progressing and managing a varied workload of non-contentious procurement matters advising bidders to the public sector and utilities
• Undertaking, progressing and assisting litigation colleagues with contentious procurement law challenges and Judicial Reviews featuring procurement law issues
• The ability to undertake, progress and manage Subsidy Control matters (or a willingness to develop experience and expertise in this area)
• Managing own matters, time and relationships and being a team player at all times
• Actively identifying and exploiting business development opportunities and marketing activity for team clients and own contacts
• Initiating and participating in marketing / network activities in order to maintain and develop work from existing clients and potential clients
• Creating content for, and presenting and assisting in client and other external seminars and training opportunities, leading and taking part in pitches and leading and contributing positively to business development
• Maintaining and developing technical knowledge through attending training sessions, reading appropriate publications and exceeding Law Society CPD requirements
• Leading and contributing to technical and sector knowledge within the team and firm
• Supporting the effective running of the team e.g. contributing to team meetings, reviewing advice, reports and documents of more junior fee earners and providing guidance and feedback, assisting with the allocation of work
• Providing support for colleagues where appropriate e.g. progressing matters in colleagues’ absence, supporting CRM activities
• Continually monitoring and taking responsibility for own financial performance and demonstrating proactive financial management; attention to billing regimes, credit control, debt collection, accounting procedures and client service level agreements
• Handling confidential data in line with the firm's data security protocols

The Ideal Candidate

Ideally a Solicitor from an established procurement law practice working with contracting authorities, contracting entities and bidders. You will be able to demonstrate the following:

• Solid experience of advising on the procurement of projects from start to finish (under all procedures) for services, supplies and works under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016 and Concessions Contracts Regulations 2016 and applicable case law and Policy and supervising others to do the same
• Solid experience of providing day to day advice to clients on all typical procurement issues such as but not limited to types of procurement procedure, how to run a procurement process, clarification questions, variations to contracts and procurement processes, drafting and reviewing tender documents, advising on evaluation and moderation, advising on structuring a procurement to be outside of the relevant procurement regime (such as but not limited to development agreements), advising on and drafting framework agreements and advising on procurement risk and likelihood of challenge
• Some experience of contentious procurement and working alongside procurement litigators from start to finish of a procurement challenge
• Some experience of advising on the application of Subsidy Control law and an appreciation of the legal developments in this area.
• Solid experience of working alongside other professional advisors and consultants as part of a project team to a client
• Solid experience of advising bidders on regulated processes and their rights in responding to and bidding for public contracts/concessions/contracts with utilities
• Independent, creative thinker with a focus on generating commercial solutions to problems on behalf of clients. Up to date knowledge of key trends in order to maintain credibility in conversations with clients
• Confident communicator with an ability to develop relationships, undertake client marketing and influence at all levels, in particular C-Suite and Heads of Procurement
• Enthusiastic team player with a flexible approach, and demonstrates role model behaviours at all times

About the Company

We are a leading international legal business with over 2,500 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We have 11 offices in the UK as well as offices in Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Miami. We also have associations/alliances with firms in Malaysia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Central America, the USA, Australia and Germany.

We are a broad-based commercial firm with a strong heritage in insurance, health and real estate. This is complemented by a fast-growing Business Advisory capability. We represent a wide range of clients, ranging from household names to government departments and NHS bodies. We act for all of the UK’s top-ten insurers, we are market leaders in the provision of strategic, commercial and regulatory advice to providers and commissioners in the health sector, and in real estate we advise all of the UK’s top-12 housebuilders.

We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 142 Chambers UK 2021 practice area and individual lawyer rankings. In Legal 500 UK 2021, the firm received a top tier ranking for 37 of its practice areas, and 58 DACB lawyers were singled out in the ‘Leading Individual' rankings.

Our successes have been recognised by the legal industry and the markets in which we operate. These accolades include two top prizes in the ‘Excellence in Business Development’ and ‘Excellence in Technology & Innovation’ categories of the 2020 Law Society Excellence Awards – the highest accolade for law firms in England & Wales. Our health sector team won the ‘Crisis Management Team of the Year’ award at the 2020 British Legal Awards for its support to the NHS at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our Cyber & Data Risk team received the ‘Business Development Innovation Award’ at the 2020 Legal Innovation Awards, as well as ‘Cyber Law Firm of the Year’ at the prestigious Insurance Insider Cyber Rankings Awards, for its market-leading suite of digital tools to help our clients prepare for and respond to cyber and data risk crises.

Our vision is to be leading business advisers, recognised for our insight and our outstanding commitment to clients, and for being the place where talented people want to work. For further details on our work and our culture, please visit www.dacbeachcroft.com.

Application Details

At DAC Beachcroft, we don’t just accept your differences we celebrate them.  From bespoke solutions for our clients, to treating you like an individual.  Our strength comes from your diverse ideas and bringing the whole you to work. So if you’re good at what you do, come as you are.  We welcome direct applications and are happy to talk flexible working.

We also want you to be at your very best.  Please feel free to let us know of any changes we can make at any point in the recruitment process that will help support your application.  If this opportunity sounds of interest to you, please make an application and submit your CV.  Your application will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence.

Note for Recruitment Agencies – the DAC Beachcroft recruitment team is responsible for managing all current vacancies through direct hiring and referrals wherever possible.  We do work with recruitment agencies and where we require external support we will formally release those vacancies to the agencies on our Preferred Supplier List deemed best placed to assist us.  Speculative CVs sent by any agency to any DAC Beachcroft employee without a specific request by the recruitment team will not be accepted and with no introduction fee applicable.  Our recruitment team can be contacted at recruitment@dacbeachcroft.com

DAC Beachcroft