Rachel Murray-Smith

Partner

020 7405 4600
Contact by email

Rachel Murray-Smith is an outstanding lawyer, is very personable and provides advice which whilst always legally correct, is also commercially based.

Legal 500 2023

I came in for the training on Friday and thought it was one of the best third party training sessions I have attended. The speakers were really good, especially Rachel who clearly knows this area so well.

West Sussex County Council.

Rachel is knowledgeable, enthusiastic and always willing to help. She’s been a real asset to our project and we value both her advice and her approach

Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames.

Practice areas:

Sector experience:

Rachel specialises in projects and procurement matters, with a particular focus on construction.

Rachel provides solutions-focused legal advice, with an emphasis on proactive engagement with her clients and management of legal and commercial risks. The projects that Rachel advises on invariably involve multiple stakeholders, numerous commercial risks and considerations, and tight deadlines.

Sectors Rachel specialises in include commercial contracts, construction and procurement. Rachel has built up extensive non-contentious construction experience and works across a range of construction contracts. She advises clients regularly on the use of JCT, NEC3 and NEC4 standard form contracts together with preparing all ancillary documentation. She provides end-to-end support commencing at the procurement strategy phase all the way through to project completion.

Rachel plays an active role in the firm’s dedicated adjudication unit, SP Adjudication, and has advised in relation to issues such as interim application disputes, final payment disputes, defects liability and overpayment claims. Rachel is also a member of the mediation team in the firm’s standalone mediation unit, SP Mediation.

Case highlights

Central Government Department: Providing procurement and contract advice for the Government’s UK wide schools condition survey. There were 3 interconnected procurements for the relevant elements of the project: IT provider, Surveying Organisations and Technical Quality Manager. Owing to the nature of the contractual arrangements it was necessary to ensure that the contractual independencies were comprehensively captured; this requirement was only heightened by the impacts of COVID-19.
London Local Authority: Currently advising on four separate but related procurements for the full scope of the Authority’s planned and reactive maintenance requirements for its housing stock. Three of the four procurements are being conducted using the Competitive Procedure with Negotiation with one involving multiple lots for the full range of work disciplines.
British Telecommunications Plc: Acted for BT Plc in the outsourcing of its legal services for claims and real estate work. This was the largest legal outsourcing project in the UK market in 2019.