Projects

Overview

Every project has its own commercial and legal nuances. For a project to be completed, each of these aspects has to be taken into consideration. You need to anticipate risks and roadblocks - and you want strong leadership to ensure all parties are working in tandem.

Gowling WLG offers legal services that address all aspects of your project, whatever its nature. As leaders in legal project management, we apply our in-depth understanding of the world in which you work to ensure that your matter is completed on time and on budget. Going beyond the law, we can also play a major role in bringing parties together, ensuring your project deadlines are met and that the necessary approvals are obtained.

We take a holistic view that's drawn from our experience in working for all project parties: governments, contractors, EPC/EPCM contractors, design-builders, operators, banks and underwriters, consultants, advisers and debt providers, amongst others. Our deep resources ensure you'll receive seamless service, no matter what expertise is needed - or where it needs to be applied.

With substantial experience in all related service areas, we provide full lifecycle assistance to your infrastructure team. Our broad skill set reflects our deep sector experience in areas such as infrastructure/P3, PPP concessions, energy, mining, oil and gas and all types of conventional construction and engineering.

The services we offer include:

  • Construction and engineering
  • Corporate structuring
  • Dispute resolution
  • Government and regulatory advisory
  • Land rights and development: acquisitions, leasing, licensing, expropriations, zoning
  • Procurement: RFQs, RFPs, selection/decision process, procurement disputes
  • Project funding (debt and equity)
  • Project planning and strategy
  • Structuring, drafting and negotiating all types of contracts, operations and management

Before, during or following development and construction, our team can also help sell or otherwise monetise a project. Conversely, whether you're a strategic or financial buyer, we can help you on the buy-side of a project, regardless of stage of development.

Because our team operates globally, we're able to handle the complications that may arise from cross-border projects. Wherever you operate, you can trust us to manage your project efficiently and effectively.

To learn how we can help you with your project, please contact any member of our team.

France

Projects and public law

If you're connected with public law in any way, you likely realise just how complex, awkward and difficult to understand EU and French rules can be. Getting it right isn't easy - and it's not likely to get any simpler in the future.

That's why you need lawyers who can cut through the complexity and deliver clear, effective legal solutions.

Gowling WLG provides that clarity. We offer advice and assist in disputes involving both large-scale public operations - from social, transport and energy infrastructure to networks and defence equipment supply chains - and the more traditional fields of regulatory public law, such as urban planning, environment, energy, health, NTIC, transportation, broadcasting, state aids and more.

Our team works on behalf of both public and private clients, and is seamlessly integrated with firm colleagues in real estate, finance, tax and corporate. This allows us to offer you a specialist focus on public-private partnerships (PPPs), public service delegations (PSDs) and public real estate operations.

Areas we cover include:

  • Financing of public facilities and infrastructures
  • Institutional public-private and other partnerships
  • Long-term administrative leases and public domain occupancy
  • Partnership contracts and concessions
  • Public procurement contracts (global and complex)
  • Public bond issues, loan guarantees
  • Public international law
  • Urban planning and development
  • Environment
  • Expropriation and pre-emption right
  • Regulated sectors: energy, health, broadcasting, transportation
  • State aids

Learn more

Cut through complexity. Our team is ready and here to help you succeed with your projects.

Related pages

UK

When it comes to choosing lawyers to handle large, complex projects anywhere in the world, Gowling WLG offers a winning combination:

  • Experience - we advise on the most challenging and complex infrastructure and PPP projects being undertaken in the UK and internationally.
  • Trusted advisers - our lawyers are established advisers to government bodies, contractors, sponsors and funders, and have a strong track record of delivering strategically important and high value projects.
  • Commercial - we understand the full range of procurement models and advise on bid tactics and strategic procurement issues. Our team regularly advises on the sale and purchase of equity in PFI/PPP projects, different contracting structures including PFI/PPP, alliancing and partnering, wider markets initiative, outsourcing, prime contracting and long-term collaboration agreements.

PFI/PPP

Ranked a first tier firm by Legal 500, we benchmark international best practice from our experience in the UK (which is a world leader in PFI and PPP) added to our work in the Middle East and Africa on PPP projects.

Team members have acted for the UK Government for nearly 20 years and have successfully closed a number of PPPs for the Department of Health Commercial Directorate, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Defence.

Our lawyers are among the leading names for PFI/PPP work, with partner Stephen Kenny described as "... a deal doer and solution finder, and he knows a lot about the subject", while partner David Fennell is "diligent and commercial".

For international projects, partner Jonathan Brufal is considered a "great lawyer", who is "impressive, confident, articulate and knowledgeable".

Our expertise covers the following sectors:

Transport and ports

For organisations involved in transport infrastructure projects, our team has a strong track record including ports, highways, rail and light rail projects. We advised on three of the largest highways PPP schemes: the £2.7 billion Birmingham Highways PFI, the £2 billion Sheffield Highways PPP, and March's £500 million M8 Project in Scotland.

Current international mandates include advising the Government of Rwanda on the development of several trade logistics PPP projects. Our lawyers are also working with the Kenya Ports Authority on restructuring the legal and regulatory framework for the ports sector in Kenya.

We won the Kenya mandate thanks to an impressive track record of advising on domestic and international maritime transactions, including the London Gateway Port and the Dakar, New Doha and Sokhna ports development projects.

Waste

The Gowling WLG team is at the forefront of waste infrastructure development in the UK, making it the ideal choice for cutting-edge advice in this developing area. Skills and experience have been honed waste management and treatment projects, including energy from waste.

Stephen Kenny advised the South London Waste Partnership on the development of an energy-from-waste PPP at Beddington. This project won the "Best Waste/Energy/Water Project" Award at the 2013 Partnerships Awards.

Our team also advised Waste Recycling Group (part of FCC) on its successful bid to design, build and operate a landmark £145 million Energy from Waste facility for Lincolnshire County Council. Elsewhere in the UK, we act for bidders and funders on bids for waste PFI projects.

Internationally, team members advised CNM on the Bahrain Solid waste PPP project, the first project financed waste project in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Defence

Clients choose our team for its market-leading knowledge of the defence sector, developed over time on a number of high-profile projects.

We acted for the UK Ministry of Defence on the CVF Carrier Project, the nuclear submarine programme and significant defence estates contracts. Our team also helped the MoD complete a major Air Traffic Services project to provide long-term air traffic management capability for the safe operation of all the MoD's main bases, airfields and air weapon ranges in the UK and overseas.

Further afield, our experts advised Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'Armement (OCCAR) on the re-negotiation of a ground-breaking contract for the development and supply of up to 170 A400M military transport aircraft from Airbus Military S.L.

Social infrastructure

Acting on PFI/PPP projects in the health, social care, leisure and, social housing and serviced accommodation sectors gives our team an in-depth understanding of the legal and commercial issues and opportunities. We advised Lovell on the £300 million North Tyneside Social Housing PFI and have extensive experience of acting on courts and secure accommodation PPP projects.

Our health expertise is bolstered by an ever-growing client list, which includes the biggest names among private sector healthcare providers, social care providers, life sciences, pharmaceuticals and the NHS. We advised the Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust on a project for the construction and operation of a new radiotherapy unit. The firm's healthcare team distinctive expertise and specialisms which set it apart from other healthcare practices.

Infrastructure clients include Abengoa, Amec, Amey, BNP Paribas, Equitix, Gloucestershire County Council, Government of Rwanda, Government of Kenya, Health Authority of Abu Dhabi, International Finance Corporate, London Borough of Croydon, Ministry of Defence, Morgan Sindall, National Health Service, Shropshire Council, South London Waste Partnership and TradeMark East Africa.

Recognition

The Projects team won the award for Infrastructure Projects Team of the Year category at The Lawyer 2017 after advising South London Waste Partnership on a programme of infrastructure works that will deliver significant investment in waste treatment infrastructure (including Energy from Waste) on one of the largest municipal waste services programmes in Europe.