Expertise
Stephanie has over 15 years' of experience of advising funders, local authorities and other public and private bodies across all aspects of commercial and corporate law. She specialises in novel and complex matters with a particular focus on commercial contracts and transactional work generally with a public private interface.
Stephanie is the Head of the Universities Group within AG bringing together our experience across the firm with a focus on how we can grow our position in this market. She regularly chairs the internal discussion group and is spearheading the firm's strategy in this area.
She has experience acting across a range of sectors which include health, social housing, schools, local government and Higher Education.
Stephanie is a leading expert on handback and expiry in PFI/PPPs. She has advised a range of public and private sector organisations on transitions, variations and terminations to projects across social infrastructure. Stephanie leads our Handback Focus Group.
- Experience
Her recent experience includes:
- advising Manchester Metropolitan University on the strategic planning and procurement of a development partner as part of its redevelopment of the John Dalton buildings on Oxford Road;
- acting for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust on the CitiLabs scheme on the Oxford Road corridor. This was a three stage development with the first stage being the appointment of a development partner in the form of Bruntwood. It was a collaboration with Manchester University for the development of specially designed lab space to support R&D and encourage innovation and support research and start-ups in their clinical development;
- acting for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust on the establishment of a LLP, being a wholly owned subsidiary, to support the commercialisation of the brand, Intellectual Property and management of data both in the UK and in the Middle East including the establishment of their Maudsley Learning brand – a specialist education and training provider;
- advising Salford City Council on the £40m remediation works to the high rise towers which form part of the Pendleton PFI where significant fire safety defects have been uncovered;
- advising University of Derby & Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on the use of their charitable arm to transfer properties to in order to obtain SPF funding from central government as well as a dispute with a private sector provider on the terms of the delivery of acute services;
- Southend University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on the merger by acquisition of the Mid-Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust and Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the first three way merger of its kind in England;
- a private sector provider supplying millions of pieces of PPE to the DHSC and how that commercial relationship, and financial solution, could be managed and syndicated to create a fast and effective solution;
- D-Hive, the wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, on their commercial activities including purchasing commercial property, setting up managed services from the Trust, engaging in a scheme to maximise access to the PSF using the Trust's estate and the Trust's charity.
- advising HTP Grange, as Project Co, as part of our retained role on the Halton BSF scheme on the conversion of The Grange to academy status including liaising with the local authority and DfE;
- advising Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council on the outsourcing of their primary catering function across the entire primary school estate to Carillion;
- acting for the Council of the City of Salford on their £400m Building Schools for Future programme. This was initially in conjunction with Wigan MBC which meant that the drafting of the Strategic Partnering Agreement and Shareholders' Agreement required a bespoke approach to the management of future projects. We acted for Salford across all phases of their programme with PFI and D&B projects;
- acting for the Council of the City of Salford on the design and build of the Oasis Academy, Media City, Salford including liaising with the DfE, novating the D&B contract and associated warranties;
- lead advisor for the Council of the City of Salford in respect of their £115 million Pendleton Housing Regeneration project which included both a development agreement for the development of new private for sale housing and a project agreement for the extensive refurbishment of some 1200 properties in the Pendleton area through a PFI scheme including advising on all aspects of procurement which reached financial close in September 2013;
- advising Oldham Borough Council on their £126m academies and BSF programme from the development of their procurement process through the evaluation of bidders including bidder days and producing and negotiating all relevant project documents. This included managing changes to the procurement drafting and issuing a VEAT Notice;
- advising on a number of Building Schools for the Future Projects and associated schools matters also for the Tameside Borough Council, Lancashire County Council and Sheffield City Council; and
- advising Trafford Council on the outsourcing of their statutory functions, to the value of approximately £350m.
