VWV bolsters commercial team with hire of procurement specialist Rickard

Law firm VWV has strengthened its commercial team with the hire of procurement and State aid specialist Stephanie Rickard as a partner.

Rickard, who was a legal director at Burges Salmon, 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. 

She has advised on a number of high profile procurements, including the regeneration of Royal Albert Dock in London, and various programmes for the decommissioning of nuclear sites.

She also acted for the University of Bristol in the establishment and ongoing operation of the National Composites Centre, which provides state-of-the-art manufacturing, research and development and skills training for the manufacture of composite materials.

Rickard said: “I am delighted to be joining VWV. 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 I am looking forward to bringing my experience to the established teams."

 VWV Managing Partner Simon Heald said: "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."