A Legal Aid Practice Survival Kit
 

Join us for an interactive training session which aims to identify the most serious threats legal aid firms face from procurement, contractual and regulatory decision-making – and how they can be addressed.

Serving the public by providing legal aid services is becoming ever more complex. Alongside the significant reductions in fees and work within scope, there is heavy reliance on complex procurement exercises to award contracts. Providers have been, and will continue to be, rejected for procedural and substantive breaches of the procurement rules, and where competition is used, on the basis of assessments that they as not as ‘economically advantageous’ as their competitors.  This will be particularly pertinent at this time to those involved in the crime duty solicitors tender.  It is essential that Legal Aid firms understand their options and act quickly whenever concerns about a procurement arise, given that any challenge must be brought within 30 days of grounds arising and sometimes within a week of a contract award decision being made to protect firms’ positions until a determination by the Court.

The LAA is also increasingly taking regulatory and disciplinary action against providers for contract breach, which can have dramatic consequences on a business, including the potential suspension of all
contracts in response to a breach in one area. 

Speakers 

Akhlaq Choudhury QC

Barrister, 11KBW 

Akhlaq is a specialist in commercial, employment, procurement, information and public law. His broad-based commercial practice includes contractual claims, particularly those between public and private entities. He is a specialist in obtaining and resisting injunctions and interim relief and in High Court trial work. He has a well-established procurement practice including automatic suspension and injunction applications in relation to procurement exercises and he acted for the successful contractor in the first Court of Appeal case to consider the automatic suspension (DWF v Insolvency Service [2014] EWCA Civ 900).

Andrew Sharland

Barrister, 11KBW 

Andrew Sharland has a broad practice encompassing public law/human rights, procurement law, employment and information law. Andrew is recommended by Chambers and Partners in five areas: public and administrative, local government (he is the top ranked junior in this area), education, community care and information law. The directories describe him as a “very bright and punchy advocate”.  Andrew’s recent procurement experience includes DWF v The Insolvency Service [2014] EWCA Civ 900 (limitation and automatic suspensions) and Countryside Homes v LB of Waltham Forest (legality of award under a framework agreement).   He is currently acting for a local authority defending a judicial review challenge to a Council resolution boycotting the purchase of goods from the occupied territories. Recent public law/human rights cases include McDonald v United Kingdom (ECtHR, 20 May 2014) where he acted on behalf of the UK Government. He also acted for Leicester City Council in the dispute over where Richard III’s remains should be buried before the Divisional Court and for the Times Newspapers before the Supreme Court in Kennedy v Charity Commission, a case concerning the interrelationship between the right to information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Article 10 ECHR (the right to freedom of expression). Andrew is co-author of Judicial Review: Principles and Procedure (OUP, 2013) and Atkins Court Forms on Human Rights. He contributed to R McManus, Education and the Courts and P Coppel, Information Rights.

John Halford

Partner, Bindmans LLP 

John Halford is a public law specialist.  As a litigator, he has focussed on judicial review work since 1993, challenging the unfair exercise and abuse of power by public authorities, human rights breaches and discrimination. John recently acted for the Public Law Project in the successful challenge to the proposed Legal Aid residence test, for a firm unlawfully excluding from a LAA contracting process and for the Law Society in its judicial review of the crime duty contracts scheme. He has acted for a wide range of businesses in procurement and regulatory cases, ranging from a major advertising agency, through to NHS bodies and SMEs. 

Paul Ridge

Partner, Bindmans LLP 

Paul specialises in public law with a particular interest in community care and housing.  Paul has experience of bringing cases against a wide range of public bodies as well as acting for individuals and organisations, including advice to the Law Society relating to recovery of unrecouped payments on account from law firms.

Jamie Potter

Partner, Bindmans LLP 

Jamie joined the Bindmans Public Law and Human Rights team in January 2014.  He has a wealth of experience across all facets of public law, in particular, in respect of judicial review, public procurement, human rights, freedom of information, parliamentary practice and procedure and public policy.  Jamie has acted in cases involving central Government departments, regulators and other public sector bodies across an extensive range of industry sectors, including healthcare and pharmaceuticals, information and communications technology, manufacturing and retail, advertising, transport and environmental regulation, financial services and tax. 

David Gilmore

Director, DG Legal 

David has provided advice and assistance to hundreds of law firms and other legal organisations. He delivers specialist consultancy and training on a wide range of topics including business management & strategy, tendering, compliance and quality assurance. He has also undertaken feasibility studies and conducted surveys. He is an expert in relation to LSC contracting and auditing and is also a Law Society accredited Lexcel consultant.

Matthew Howgate

Consultant, DG Legal

Matthew is generally recognised to be one of the Country’s leading experts on the legal aid scheme. He started his career as a legal aid lawyer before joining the Legal Aid Board and subsequently the Legal Services Commission (now the Legal Aid Agency) as a Senior legal Adviser.  Whilst at the LSC he was National Appeals Policy Co-ordinator, Secretary and Legal Adviser to the Customer Redress Committee, Costs Appeals Committee and Contract Review Body and finally Head of Continuous Improvement.