Penri Desscan > Blake Morgan LLP > Cardiff, United Kingdom > Lawyer Profile
Blake Morgan LLP Offices
ONE CENTRAL SQUARE
CARDIFF
CF10 1FS
United Kingdom
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Penri Desscan
Work Department
Commercial and Charities
Position
Penri is a commercial lawyer specialising in utilities and public procurement law, projects and all aspects of general commercial law with an emphasis on long term, complex, high value services and supplies contracts.
Penri has an extensive procurement practice and has advised on numerous open, restricted, competitive dialogue and bespoke hybrid award procedures (subject to Treaty principles).
Social Housing
Currently advising Pennaf Housing Group on the procurement of a 4 year multi contractor framework value up to £75m to deliver residential housing, nursing and/or residential homes, extra care homes, health/community centre projects, commercial enterprises with community groups together with associated infrastructure.
Advising the Syniad Consortium of housing associations (Wales and West / Pennaf / Linc) on the procurement of a large scale multi supplier framework agreement for the delivery of capital projects and major refurbishment throughout Wales’s value circa £350m.
Advising Wales and West Housing Association and the Pennaf Group on the procurement of a long term repair and maintenance agreements across a number of disciplines for planned and reactive maintenance of their housing stock across Wales – value circa £200m.
Education
Lead procurement adviser to HPC Wales, a collaboration of 6 Welsh Universities, on its procurement, using the competitive dialogue procedure, of a £50m world-class high performance computing infrastructure to deliver research and innovation outputs that have economic impact and dealing with a threat of challenge from IBM.
Advising Cardiff and Vale College on all aspects of its circa £40m City Centre Campus development project (new build) procured under the competitive dialogue regime.
Health & Social Care
Advising Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Local Health Board on the procurement, using Competitive Dialogue, of uniforms for all nurses, midwives and associated healthcare staff in all NHS institutions in Wales – in total covering circa thirty thousand staff x five shifts (equating to 150,000 uniforms). This politically-important project – which was promoted by the Health Minister and funded by the Welsh Government – was completed within a tight timescale (6 months from OJEU to contract award) and to budget and achieved significant cost savings to NHS Wales.
Regional and Local Government
Currently lead adviser to the Welsh Government on its £400m Public Sector
Broadband Aggregation project which aims to deliver a secure, high quality network to circa 3000 sites over 109 public sector organisations.
Lead procurement adviser to the Welsh Government on its competitive dialogue procedure for its £500M+ Next Generation Broadband Wales, (to date) the largest broadband roll-out projects in Europe and top 5 globally.
Lead procurement adviser to the Welsh Government on all aspects of its Welsh Public Sector Performance Management IT Solution value up to £10m.
Six month secondment to the Economic Development Team within the Office of the Counsel General at the National Assembly (Sept 04 – March 05).
Providing legal input into policy development and advising client divisions on legal issues as they arise. First point of contact with the Broadband Wales Unit, advising on vires, procurement, state aid and contract issues on a number of broadband infrastructure projects valued in excess of £100 million and in particular on all aspects of the Regional Innovative Broadband Support (RIBS) project from State Aid notification through to contract signature.
Energy
Advising British Energy on Utilities procurement issues relating to their long term facilities management agreement valued at circa £140 million.
Advising Welsh Power (formerly Severn Power) on the procurement aspects for the design build and operation of a circa £300 million 800 MW CUT power station including structuring of the procurement strategy from embryonic stage to contract close and drafting the entire suite of procurement/tender documentation.
Advising Wales and West Utilities on Utilities on the procurement of a replacement commercial fleet (500+ vehicles) value circa £18m.
Lawyer Rankings
Wales > Public sector
(Leading partners)Leveraging extensive pure public law expertise, from both a UK perspective and in the context of Welsh devolved powers, and also drawing upon more broad-based public sector prowess across the firm’s full-service offering, Blake Morgan LLP offers ‘sound legal advice’ to a myriad public sector bodies (including at local and central government level), ensuring it can provide a tailored service addressing issues unique to entities in the space. ‘Calm and incredibly friendly’ team head Eve Piffaretti 
is a reassuring presence to Welsh public sector and UK regulators in the context of health and social care law matters, including when responding to safeguarding issues and advice relating to adults at risk (areas which have an added layer of complexity due to their adherence to secondary legislation which is Welsh specific). The vastly experienced Graham Miles is also very active in the health and social care sectors, both as it relates to his work for regulatory bodies investigating fitness to practice, as well as his niche expertise in the area of human fertilisation (where Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is a cornerstone client). Public procurement-related work also continues to generate a substantial amount of work, with Penri Desscan and Simon McCann noted for their expertise on behalf of contracting authorities, including in the context of long term, complex, high-value services and supplies contracts. Litigator Joanne Thompson takes the lead in the event of procurement challenges and is also at the forefront of the firm’s public inquiries offering, which includes continued representation of NHS England in the Covid-19 inquiry. Sarah Whittle is also very active in the healthcare sector and as well as being involved in the aforementioned inquiry, is regularly engaged in procurement challenges in the sector. Trish D’Souza excels at work at the intersection of public and education law, regularly advising, inter alia, on disciplinary matters and judicial review challenges. ‘Approachable and highly communicative’ associate Daniel Taylor is also gaining market recognition, particularly among local authorities, for his aptitude at handling complex Court of Protection-related litigation matters.
Wales > Corporate and commercial
Leveraging the expertise of ‘consummate professionals’, including many who have been at the forefront of the South Wales corporate market for a number of years, Blake Morgan LLP is a popular choice among corporates, owner-managed businesses and SMEs, which are appreciative of the firm’s ‘refreshing work ethic and pragmatism’. Drawing upon strong local business ties corporate head James Williams leads from the front and is well-placed to provide a ‘responsive and very efficient’ service to clients from a range of industries on their most pressing transactional needs. Richard Jones is also central to the firm’s success and continues to provide forward momentum to its private equity/venture capital offering, with the Development Bank of Wales and LDC regularly instructing him on their investment activity. James Vaughan also continues to impress, handling a range of transactional work for high-net-worth individuals, owner-managed businesses and large corporates. Penri Desscan heads up the commercial practice group and excels in servicing both private and public sector clients, including as it relates to drafting long-term supply contracts.
London > Public sector > Education: institutions
Blake Morgan LLP‘s education offering spans transactional work, litigation and specialist education tribunal work, also covering a wide range of student matters, such as EU student tuition fees, implications of Brexit, exclusions or disciplinary matters, as well as in sensitive cases, such as sexual misconduct and discrimination cases and advice on regulatory issues. Matthew Smith leads the department from Cardiff and handles both contentious and non-contentious employment advice. Penri Desscan handles procurement and broad commercial matters, while Eve Piffaretti ‘s broad practice covers public, regulatory and governance law, as well as mental health and capacity law. Paula Kathrens handles employment-related litigation and Joanna Rees is the key contact for contentious and non-contentious construction matters. Alison Patten-Hall assists with commercial agreements including IP licensing and procurement. Other key members of the team are Trish D’Souza, Rachel Sales, Natalie Lawley and Laura Sherratt.
Lawyer Rankings
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Dispute resolution > Commercial litigation
- Real estate > Construction
- Corporate and commercial
- Employment > Employment
- Employment > Health and safety
- Finance > Insolvency and corporate recovery
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Intellectual property
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Sport
- Employment > Pensions
- Real estate > Property litigation
- Public sector
- Real estate > Social housing