Practice areas:
Sector experience:
Jane is an experienced legal adviser to the public sector, specialising in the procurement of high-value complex infrastructure and construction projects and related services. As part of this, she drafts and advises on a range of NEC-based and other complex construction and procurement documentation.
Over the last 20 years, Jane has provided detailed legal, contractual, procurement, commercial and strategic advice on a large number of complex projects, at all stages of procurement until contract award then beyond into delivery, changes over time and termination/expiry.
She has extensive knowledge and experience of the NEC3 and NEC4 suites of contracts and their use and amendment to meet client and project requirements. She is familiar with other standard forms, including JCT. She places particular emphasis on drafting contracts which maintain maximum flexibility (whilst complying with procurement law) to withstand changes in the political and economic climates during their term.
Jane’s role:
Jane has experience of procuring and drafting term maintenance contracts, professional services contracts and framework agreements. She has detailed knowledge of relevant documentation including payment, pricing and performance
mechanisms. She is an experienced author of procurement documentation for use in regulated procurements by contracting authorities and utilities.
She also has experience in establishing and implementing partnering and alliancing arrangements in the construction and infrastructure spaces.
Skills and strengths:
Jane specialises in ensuring that different parts of a construction contract work seamlessly together and value collaborative work within interdisciplinary teams. Her experience includes in-house co-location with clients and secondments to various in-house legal teams. She is also accredited as an NEC4 Project Manager.
Case highlights
Major Government/Utility Infrastructure Projects- Advising the New Hospital Programme (Department for Health and Social Care) on the following:
- partnering arrangements linking NHP, NHS Trusts and appointed contractors for 10 early projects to build new hospitals, including standardised amendments to the NEC3 and NEC4 engineering and construction contracts;
- drafting (with Roseanne Serrelli) the proposed collaboration agreement between NHS England, participating NHS Trusts and their main works contractors (a bespoke agreement based standard construction industry collaboration and alliancing principles such as FAC-1 and NEC X12);
- advising on the Programme’s digital partner procurement and contract.
- Provision of procurement and commercial support over 8 years to the railway systems team of a key UK rail infrastructure project, including drafting, advising on and assuring procurement documentation for multi-stage regulated procurements (under the UCR 2016) for over 10 design and build contracts based on NEC3, together with related supply contracts and framework agreements, This included advising on . related processes and negotiations and reviewing contractual aspects of works information.
- Thames Tideway Tunnel – procurement of the systems integration contract under the Utilities Regulations and based on the NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract Option E. Advising on procurement and drafting of framework agreements for occupational health and site security. Part of SP team working with Thames Water’s project team between July 2014 and licence award in 2015 on all aspects of the construction contract procurement.
Local Government Highways Maintenance
Jane’s practice has a strong focus on local government highways procurement, including advising in relation to long-term highways maintenance and project arrangements and highways professional services.
She is currently instructed by three separate highway authorities in the re-procurement of their long-standing maintenance and project arrangements, all of which involve some element of professional services and design work.
Prior to that, Jane worked on six other procurements (including negotiated procurement) for long-term significant value contracts.
These projects have covered programmed and reactive maintenance, bridges and structures, traffic management, carriageway and footway works, drainage, street lighting and winter services.
They have mostly included high-value long-term service contracts which are of critical importance to the authorities’ functions and residents. Frequently, these projects have significant political and reputational dimensions. They have often been intended to transform the way that services are provided, their standard and value for money, relationships with suppliers and how those services are received by the relevant authority.
