Profile

Alison Heathcote

Alison is a senior solicitor in the Contracts Team.

Her work covers all aspects of the public procurement process including advising on OJEU notices, the preparation of invitations to tender, drafting and advising on commercial contracts, framework agreements and partnership working.

Experience

Alison has a background in construction and engineering law. Previous experience includes work in both the private and public sector acting for a metropolitan pension fund, universities, colleges, banks, developers, contractors, sub-contractors and consultants.

  • Alisonadvised a West Midlands college on the procurement of a new £80million college campus on a high profile brownfield site in the West Midlands. This entailed liaising and negotiating with the regional development agency, the developer, the contractor and the professional team in order to protect the college’s interests as the end user of the building.
  • Alison was part of a team advising a metropolitan pension fund on the acquisition of a large newly-constructed shopping centre. This entailed reviewing all construction documents and liaising with property colleagues to ensure that the pension fund was in a position to grant or procure the granting of commercial leases to tenantsand able to take action against the contractor and/or design team in the event of defects arising from negligent design or defective workmanship.
  • Alison advised Leicestershire County Council in connection with the provision of a new primary school by a developer as part of its planning obligations. This involved liaising with the developer, the local diocese, the local planning authority and the school (which was in the process of converting to academy status) to settle 2 planning agreements and a 5 party conditional agreement dealing with land transfers and development obligations.

Strategic Talents

  • Drafting
  • Negotiating
  • Dispute resolution
  • Due diligence work
  • Risk/benefit analysis
  • Supervision
  • Stakeholder management

Current role

  • In her role as a senior solicitor in the Contracts Team, Alison works for clients across the County Council.
  • Her work includes:
  • Advising on public procurement procedures and issues such as State Aid;
  • Advising on the setting up and operation of framework agreements;
  • Advising on development agreements, particularly the construction law and funding aspects;
  • Drafting, approving and revising commercial contracts for both works and services;
  • Advising on compliance with internal governance structures and contract procedure rules;
  • Advising on the interpretation of contracts, in particular the operation of change control procedures and extension or termination provisions;
  • Advising on how to deal with breaches of contract;
  • Advising on dispute resolution procedures.

Professional Qualifications and Memberships

Qualification type: / Subject: / Date attained:
Admission to Roll of Solicitors / Law / 2004
Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives / Law / 1998-2004
LLB (Hons) / Law / 1986

Other

Alison particularly enjoys development-related work as this draws on her experience of both property and construction law.