Eversheds International

Central Government

Procurement

Case studies

Our experience includes:

Rail

Drafting and negotiating 'heavyweight' and commercially complex contracts. For example, for a number of years, Eversheds has advised the DfT Rail Group (having acted before that for the Strategic Rail Authority) on a wide range of matters relating to the rail industry, including procurement, extension, variation and termination of rail franchises (service concessions), vires, judicial review, regulatory policy and practice, and competition matters.

Inquiries and Investigations

The firm established the first dedicated Inquiries and Investigations team in the mid 1990's to deal with advisory, and evidence gathering work for clients involved in large scale public inquiries, or clients needing investigatory work to be undertaken.

Having acted for the BBC and HTV in the largest child abuse inquiry set up in the UK, and having acted for many of the abused children on a pro bono basis, the team commenced work for Lord Saville's Bloody Sunday Inquiry in 1997, continuing this work with a team of fifty lawyers for a period of over seven years. Concurrently with this work, a team of twenty-five lawyers acted for Dame Janet Smith's public inquiry into the activities of Harold Shipman, by seeking to gather evidence establishing patterns of conduct that would assist the tribunal in making an assessment as to the numbers of his victims.

The team is currently acting on behalf of Sir Michael Morland's inquiry into the murder of solicitor Rosemary Nelson, whose terms of reference require an analysis as to whether there was any collusion by the state - such as Special Branch, MI5 or the army - in her murder. We have also acted for interested parties to other inquiries, such as the E.Coli inquiry, and for inquiries into health risks caused by waste material sites.

Five of our Inquiries and Investigations team have been vetted to "D V" level, with many others vetted to "SC" level. The team also has a track record of undertaking inquisitorial investigations on behalf of clients in the public sector, and reporting back with recommendations on issues of concern; the team has reported on cases of possible breaches of procurement guidelines, large scale bullying and harassment, fraud, and improper appointments to positions due to possible personal influence.

The team also acts in the area of professional discipline cases, where its clients include the General Medical Council.

Management of compensation claims

We advised DEFRA on the conduct and resolution of disputes arising from the 'foot and mouth' outbreak.

Volume claims litigation

Volume litigation requires a consistent and managed approach and efficient systems. For example, we undertake volume employment tribunal cases and personal injury claims for two major public sector organisations with operations across the UK and many thousands of employees.