Procurement and state aid specialist Stephanie Rickard has joined Bristol-headquartered law firm VWV’s commercial team as a partner.
Her arrival comes as Brexit and its implications for state aid put a new focus on procurement work.
Stephanie, pictured, joins from Burges Salmon, where she was a legal director. She has more than 20 years’ experience advising on and managing complex and high-value procurements and projects, including advising clients on defending and bringing procurement challenges as well as non-contentious matters.
During her career, Stephanie has also worked in international law firm Osborne Clarke’s Bristol office and spent time on secondment to a railway parts manufacturer and at the European Commission.
She has advised on a number of high-profile procurements, including the regeneration of London’s Royal Albert Dock and various programmes for the decommissioning of nuclear sites with a value of more than £3bn.
She also acted for the University of Bristol in setting up and operating the National Composites Centre on the Bristol & Bath Science Park, which provides state-of-the-art manufacturing, research and development and skills training for composite materials manufacture.
Clients describe Stephanie as “responsive and providing consistently reliable advice in some challenging and complex matters”.
She said: “The next few years are going to present plenty of opportunities and challenges from a procurement perspective. For example, clients will need to navigate around the implications of Brexit for procurement and State aid.
“We are also likely to see clients wanting to use the procurement rules more flexibly to achieve their policy objectives, whether to promote sustainability, to vary existing contracts or to enable greater public to public co-operation.
“I admire VWV’s strong sector focus, in particular in the education and public sectors, and am looking forward to bringing my experience to the established teams.”
VWV managing partner Simon Heald added: “We are delighted to welcome Stephanie to the firm. I am confident that she will build on the reputation of our education, public sector and procurement teams.”
Stephanie is a member of the Procurement Lawyers Association, where she has contributed to several working groups, most recently on Brexit.
Pictured: Stephanie Rickard with VWV managing partner Simon Heald
