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Business Legal Services
Public Procurement Challenges
Service overview: Solicitors for public procurement challenges
- Our public procurement law solicitors represent a broad range of clients drawn from both the public and private sectors. We work closely with clients to help them avoid, resolve and litigate high value, complex procurement disputes.
- For public bodies, compliance with public procurement law is key. We help ensure bidding processes are transparent, bidders are treated equally and without discrimination, and decisions are taken in a proportionate manner.
- We work with bidders, from SMEs to large multinationals, at all stages of the tender process. We develop procurement strategies, help bolster bid applications with our sector-specific knowledge and challenge potentially unfair tender processes when appropriate. We also advise bidders that have failed to qualify for a public procurement.
- We take the long view. Sometimes unsuccessful bidders don’t want to mount a formal challenge. They just want clear feedback on why a particular bid failed. We work with public bodies to provide compliant feedback, and help bidders seek clarification and feedback whilst maintaining a positive ongoing relationship with the body concerned.
Experts in public procurement
Our team can assist you across all areas of public procurement, including:
What we do: Solicitors for challenging procurement awards
Our clients know that challenges to a tendering process are expensive. They drain valuable resources. Disputes can also significantly threaten an organisation’s reputation. That’s why timely advice from specialists in procurement challenges is essential. At Harper James we have a dedicated team of public sector lawyers, and dispute resolution solicitors specialising in public procurement challenges. We’ll defend or challenge decisions robustly when it’s the commercially sensible thing to do. But our advice is realistic and our approach practical. Not every failure to win a bid should be disputed. Nor should awarding bodies necessarily be advised to defend a challenge to a flawed public procurement process.
We provide a comprehensive service to public bodies and private companies defending and pursuing challenges to a tendering process or outcome. There is a 30-day time limit in bringing a challenge. The clock often starts to run once a discrepancy in a tender document is noticed, not when a decision on a successful bidder has been made. It’s crucial therefore to act quickly. Our work covers:
Commencing a challenge when a bidder believes the procurement process does not comply with public procurement law.
Advising bidders that have been unsuccessful in qualifying for the procurement process.
Advising on the appropriateness of a standstill challenge following receipt of the standstill letter from the awarding authority (that is, the letter informing a bidder of its unsuccessful bid).
Advising public bodies and other contracting authorities facing challenges to a tender process that they have carried out.
Typical contract award and challenges we have been involved in include:
- Challenging an unwillingness to accept late bids caused by IT errors in the relevant procurement portal
- Instances of mathematical errors in the scoring criteria/methodology and/or evaluation
- Occasions when more time was spent with one bidder over others
- A client being scored down for something not mentioned in the evaluation criteria
- Where an awarding authority unlawfully favoured the incumbent
- An unreasonable insistence on local presence and/or capability
- Challenges to decisions to abandon procurements and associated judicial reviews
- Cases of non-compliant assessment and evaluation criteria
Who we help: Public bodies and private businesses seeking advice on public procurement law
We advise a wide variety of public body clients from government departments and local councils to NHS tendering groups and institutional governing bodies.
We also assist private sector companies in a diverse range of industries and sectors in relation to contract awards and challenges. Our procurement challenge solicitors have recently advised companies in transport and logistics, IT and telecommunications, waste and recycling, construction, charities, health and pharmaceuticals and aviation.
Testimonials
What our clients say
Our solicitor Michael was very honest and open. I really appreciated that, and would like to pass thanks to him for making our options so clear.
Philip Spencer
Director,
Dextra Insight
I can’t sing our solicitor’s praises enough: fast, efficient, sensible and supportive. A quick and fair resolution to all queries that we have worked on together and would thoroughly recommend her to any of my contacts.
Samuel B Higgs
Account Director,
Signal Media
Harper James has provided us with a highly responsive and pragmatic dispute resolution service which has been efficient and very cost effective in resolving recent disputes.
Alex Sloley
CFO,
Triptease
As with any business, we need access to good quality legal advice without the fear of facing huge legal fees. The service provided by Harper James is ideal because they are always available to assist and we know that the advice provided is of outstanding quality, with pricing that is cost effective and completely transparent.
Laura Bowen
Director,
Admedo
Our solicitor Michael was very honest and open. I really appreciated that, and would like to pass thanks to him for making our options so clear.
Philip Spencer
Director,
Dextra Insight
I can’t sing our solicitor’s praises enough: fast, efficient, sensible and supportive. A quick and fair resolution to all queries that we have worked on together and would thoroughly recommend her to any of my contacts.
Samuel B Higgs
Account Director,
Signal Media
Harper James has provided us with a highly responsive and pragmatic dispute resolution service which has been efficient and very cost effective in resolving recent disputes.
Alex Sloley
CFO,
Triptease
As with any business, we need access to good quality legal advice without the fear of facing huge legal fees. The service provided by Harper James is ideal because they are always available to assist and we know that the advice provided is of outstanding quality, with pricing that is cost effective and completely transparent.
Laura Bowen
Director,
Admedo
Why use our procurement dispute resolution solicitors?
Our lead public procurement challenge solicitor is Mark Gudgeon. Mark acts on numerous high value and complex public procurement challenges, some of which have been high profile. He acts for both the private and public sector. Clients have remarked on Mark’s ability to get to grips quickly with the detail of a procurement challenge, his extreme professionalism, value and responsiveness.
Clients trust us because our solicitors have regularly acted for both public sector tendering bodies as well as bidders. We therefore understand every angle and intricacy of the tendering process. To avoid challenges we spot the pitfalls for local government and other public bodies engaged in running a tender process. Similarly we identify irregularities that can optimise the chances of a successful challenge to procurement processes.
Where possible we will use effective procurement dispute resolution methods to avoid full-blown litigation.
Pricing and service plans
Legal support designed
to fit your business needs
Our three transparent service plans are designed to give you the widest possible access to high-quality legal advice, whatever the size and nature of your business:
Engage
Flexible access to senior solicitors at highly competitive rates
An alternative to our subscription plans, offering access to full service legal expertise on a project-by-project basis.
Enable
Purpose built legal support for start-ups and smaller businesses
Monthly subscription plan for £215 per month, with £145 monthly credit and access to all legal services at 50% discount on our Standard Rates.
Extend
Comprehensive legal partnership for established businesses
Fully account managed and scalable annual subscription plan with support from a curated team of partners and senior solicitors, with up to 34% discount on our Standard Rates.