People
Current Academic Staff
Director
Professor of Law and Development and Director of PPRG
Deputy Director
Senior Fellow in Public Procurement Law and Deputy Director of PPRG
Academic members
Associate Professor in Law
Dr Paula Faustino
Teaching Associate
Assistant Professor in Law
Part-time Tutor for the Executive Programme in Public Procurement Law and Policy
PhD students
Nouf Alluhidan is a PhD researcher at the School of Law at the University of Nottingham. She has a Master of Laws LLM with merit from the University of Leicester (2021). Before that, she got a Bachelor of Laws LLB degree with First Class Honours from the Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University in Saudi Arabia (2017).
Her research aims to investigate the legal framework for Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) as an economic-social transition in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It seeks to examine the current mechanism for PPP under Saudi Law and how this can be further improved to achieve the Kingdom Vision 2030. PPP is considered a significant component for establishing as an opportunity to develop the infrastructure of the country.
Supervisors: Professor Annamaria La Chimia and Dr Peter Trepte.
Lea Di Salvatore
llxld16@exmail.nottingham.ac.uk
Lea Di Salvatore is a PhD researcher at the School of Law of the University of Nottingham. Her current research investigates the regulation of the fossil fuel industry in the era of climate change. She also works on Climate Justice and EU Law. Previously she worked on climate justice for the Sustainable Development Observatory at the European Economic and Social Committee and on environmental mediation for the Milan Chamber of Arbitration. She is also one of the founders of the Sustainable Development Watch, the academic platform of the LL.M. in Sustainable Development of the University of Milan.
Ashraf-Ul-Bari Nobel
llxan19@exmail.nottingham.ac.uk
Ashraf completed his LLB Hons under the University of London International Programme in 2012. The following year, he went on become a qualified Barrister of England and Wales as a member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. He completed his Bar Professional Training Course from Manchester Metropolitan University. Subsequently, he got enrolled as an advocate of Bangladesh and practiced as a lawyer in Bangladesh for a year before coming to the University of Nottingham in 2014 to commence his LLM specialising in International Commercial Law which he eventually passed with Distinction. In addition, he received accreditation as a Mediator from the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), London, UK and is also a listed Mediator for Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre.
Presently, he is studying for his PhD at the University of Nottingham focusing on the area of Public Procurement Law with full funding by way of the Vice Chancellor's Scholarship for Research Excellence (International) and the School of Law Scholarship. His research is being supervised by Prof Sue Arrowsmith and Dr Ping Wang.
The focus of Ashraf's PhD is on the existing supplier review system under the public procurement laws of Bangladesh. Public procurement in Bangladesh is said to account for 70% of the annual development budget. Consequently, it is vital that the funds are properly utilised by the procuring officials in accordance with the relevant rules. One of the ways this is ensured is through the supplier review process.
His research's objectives are to critically analyse the current supplier review system of Bangladesh and then provide critique of these rules by drawing on the approaches taken under various international procurement-specific legal instruments, namely the UNCITRAL Model Law on Public Procurement 2011, World Trade Organisation's Revised Agreement on Government Procurement 2012, European Union Remedies Directive 2007/66/EC and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Non-Binding Principles on Government Procurement. The aim is to identify and evaluate options for improving the present Bangladeshi system by using the other legal regimes as examples of proper and acceptable practices.
It is envisaged that the findings of this research will be valuable in informing the policy makers and legislatures of the country about the defects encumbering the current process and the possible reforms that could be introduced to develop a system which is credible, effective and acceptable in the international community. The thesis might also have implications for the design of enforcement systems of other countries that are also currently having issues with underdeveloped procurement regimes.
Supervisors: Professor Sue Arrowsmith and Dr Ping Wang
Jamie Thomas
Jamie Thomas is a part-time PhD researcher at the School of Law of the University of Nottingham, also working as a public procurement professional. He has a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews (2003). More recently, Jamie completed the Executive Programme in Public Procurement Law at the University of Nottingham, graduating with an LLM (Distinction) in 2017, which encouraged him to continue to pursue a PhD. An article based on the findings of his LLM research project was published in the Public Procurement Law Review in 2018.
Professionally, Jamie has worked in public procurement for over 12 years (and counting), first in local government and more recently in the Civil Service, where he is currently Strategic Procurement Officer at National Savings and Investments but has also joined projects across the Government Commercial Function. This career has allowed him to develop an extensive practical working knowledge of public procurement law and policy, which complements his research interests. Alongside this he is also a Principal Associate of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), speaking regularly at their conferences and practice seminars.
Jamie's PhD research seeks to examine the evidence base for relatively recent public policy changes in the UK, where government has used regulation, rather than guidance, as a means to tackle perceived barriers which, it is claimed, prevent SMEs from obtaining fair access to public contract opportunities. Focusing on one specific "barrier", that of shortlisting or "PQQ" procedures, the overall aim of the research project is to help improve understanding of how SMEs interact with public procurers, on the basis of robust data, and to support evidence-led policymaking in this area.
His supervisors are Professor David Fraser and Dr Peter Trepte.
Laura Broomfield
laura.broomfield@nottingham.ac.uk
Determining the Risk of Legal Challenge of Incorporating Sustainable Public Procurement in Public Contracts
Public procurement can be full of uncertainty, resulting in decisions to be made. These decisions could impact the choice of an unsuccessful tenderer or candidate to exercise their rights to a review under the Remedies Directive. This research will develop a method for looking at the risk of legal challenge in public procurement in Europe, and whether this risk is impacted through the inclusion of a horizontal policy goal.
Steven Brunning
steven.brunning@nottingham.ac.uk
Steven Brunning completed his law degree at Cambridge University after which he completed his Legal Practice Course at BPP Law School and qualified as a solicitor at Browne Jacobson LLP in 2007. He also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Competition Law from King’s College, London. In his career as a solicitor, Steven has held a number of roles in which he has specialised in public sector contracting with a particular focus on public procurement law. These roles have been both in house (eg Nottinghamshire County Council) and in private practice. Steven is about to join the public sector team at Gowling WLG, an international law firm where he will continue to develop his public procurement practice in the long term.
Steven’s research is focused on the application of the public procurement rules to framework agreements in the UK public sector. His study will use a socio-legal approach by combining an analysis of the legal rules and the use of text based research with a qualitative empirical study to reveal how the public procurement rules on framework agreements are interpreted, applied and supplemented by UK contracting authorities. Steven is interested in identifying what discrepancies exist between the black letter law and its application in practice and plans to investigate how the grey areas of the law in this area are interpreted and whether there is a need for further clarification or guidance. In addition, it will seek to identify the factors that influence compliance and approach to legal risk (including an analysis of the strategies used to deal with these risks).
Kuldip Dhanoya
kuldip.dhanoya@tltsolicitors.com
Kuldip Dhanoya is a Legal Director at TLT Solicitors in Manchester with over 16 years' experience of advising a wide range of public sector bodies on their public procurement exercises. She regularly advises under a wide range of PPP structures including PFI, joint ventures and outsourcing and other strategic partnering arrangements. She has a particular expertise in assisted her clients on structuring procurement and state aid compliant land development/infrastructure projects and more generally, defending procurement challenges.
In 2015, Kuldip recently passed her Masters’ in Public Procurement Law and Policy with Distinction, which she studied at the University of Nottingham School of Law.
Mirella Lechna
mirella.lechna@nottingham.ac.uk
Mirella is a partner in the Polish law firm Wardynski & Partners with over 20 years of experience that includes advising clients in public procurement matters. She holds a long track record of advising in a wide range of major infrastructure projects in Poland in various industries, mostly in energy, telecommunications and transport infrastructure projects.
Mirella graduated from the law faculty of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland) and in 2017 she completed cum laude the Master’s Programme in Public Procurement Law and Policy offered by the University of Nottingham School of Law.
Mirella’s PhD research project is concerned with the tension between the objectives of the single European market and the legal tools for achieving them, as employed in public procurement law, with a “ buy national” objective of domestic economic patriotism in the era of increasing Euroscepticism, which translates into discrimination of suppliers based on their nationality.
The project is seeking to contribute to an understanding of the above by explaining the supranational legal framework and the derogations it introduces, which can be applied by reasons of public policy or public security, or to protect essential security interests at public procuring, despite them being a hindrance to trade, and then investigating the domestic rules that enable the EU Member States to resort to the above derogations.
Supervisors: Aris Georgopoulos and Ping Wang
Rebecca Rees
Rebecca is a partner at the international law firm, Trowers and Hamlins LLP, where she co-heads the Public Procurement team and specialises in advising public authorities and private sector bidders on public procurement and state aid law. She is undertaking her PhD studies on a part-time basis.
Rebecca studied her bachelors in law at the University of Southampton, graduating with an LLB with First Class Honours in 2000. More recently, Rebecca undertook the Executive Programme in Public Procurement Law (PG Cert) at the University of Nottingham as a route back into academia and her PhD studies.
Daniel Schoeni
dan.schoeni@nottingham.ac.uk
Dan has been a judge advocate with the US Air Force since 2004, where he has worked in prosecution and defence litigation, public procurement, and security cooperation. He was recently selected to serve as the first Staff Judge Advocate at Creech AFB, Nevada. Dan has been an adjunct at King’s College London’s new public procurement LLM since 2016.
Dan’s thesis addresses the structural restrictions on US/EU public procurement trade. He considers as a hypothetical what would happen if the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership passed, and describes the non-tariff barriers that would remain notwithstanding such a free trade agreement.
He completed his undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University (Utah), earned a joint degree in law and philosophy at the University of Iowa (JD/MA), received LLM degrees in public procurement law from George Washington University and the University of Nottingham, and has been a part-time PhD student at the latter institution since 2015.
Supervisors: Peter Trepte and Craig Rotherham
Recently graduated students
Carlos Sebastian Barreto Cifuentes
Sebastian Barreto has a law degree from the Externado University of Colombia (First) and a Master of Laws (distinction) from the University of Nottingham. He has been a qualified lawyer in Colombia since 2014. He was tutor, assistant-researcher and teacher-researcher at the Administrative Law Department at the Externado University of Colombia from 2011 to 2015.
In private practice, he was part of two boutique law firms as a junior associate (Alberto Montaña Abogados and Jorge E Santos Rodríguez-Abogado), where he was involved in advising public authorities and contractors on public procurement procedures as well as in domestic litigation and arbitration.
His research focuses in the interface between public procurement objectives and the legal regime of the management stage. In broad terms, his research aims to identify considerations that national and international regulatory bodies could take into consideration in deciding whether and how to deal with the management stage of public contracts, focusing on modification and termination of contracts.
The research will draw on case studies to be undertaken of four national jurisdictions: England and Wales, United States of America, France, and Colombia. The international regulatory frameworks that will be taken into consideration are those of the World Bank, the European Union, the OECD, UNCITRAL, and the WTO.
Supervisors: Professor Sue Arrowsmith and Dr Aris Georgopoulos
Ke Ren
Ke Ren is a PhD candidate in public procurement law. She has an LLB from the Wuhan University (China, 2008-2012) and a LLM in International Commercial Law from University of Nottingham (2012-2013). Her current research focuses on the use and regulation of framework agreements in Chinese public procurement.
Framework agreements have been widely used in public procurement in China for a long time. However there is currently neither legal rule nor a uniform definition of framework agreements in Chinese national procurement laws and regulations. Legal issues arising from the use of framework agreements in practice, which have attracted significant amount of public opinion, have not been thoroughly analysed by the literature.
Her research aims to examine how framework agreements are used in Chinese public procurement (including procurement by SOEs); to analyse the problems and challenges encountered in practice that may undermine the potential benefits of this procurement method; informed by the comparative analysis of relevant legal rules in other jurisdictions such as EU and US, to identify possible options for China to regulate framework agreements procurement in a coherent, sound and practical manner in order to maximise the benefits of this popular procurement method whilst minimise potential abuse.
Given the severe paucity of relevant data in the public domain, the research uses the qualitative research factors and includes interviews with selected participants who have actually been involved in the framework agreement procurement in China.
Supervisors: Dr Ping Wang and Dr Annamaria La Chimia
Astghik Solomonyan
Astghik Solomonyan is a graduate from Yerevan State University Faculty of Law (Honor Diploma). She has studied in the University of Groningen (LLM degree with Cum Laude Diploma in International Economic and Business Law) as well as in the University of Rome Tor Vergata (International Master in Public Procurement Management). She has worked for the OECD Sigma project as a Translation Consultant, in a local company as a lawyer, as well as in the World Vision International Beneficent Organization in the capacity of Contracts Assistant. Astghik has been involved in the work carried out by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the Armenian public procurement sector looking at e-procurement challenges and legal compliance with country’s international commitments.
Her research relates to the institutional and procedural set up of review bodies found in different international trade agreements. The thesis will evolve around three international trade agreements, namely the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, the Treaty on Eurasian Economic Union and the bilateral agreements signed by Armenia and Kazakhstan with the EU. The main question is whether there is conflict of norms and whether the mentioned countries can comply with all the undertaken international obligations.
Supervisors: Dr Aris Georgopoulos and Dr Narine Ghazaryan.
Fellows
Cesar Pereira
Cesar Pereira FCIArb is a partner at Justen, Pereira, Oliveira & Talamini, Sao Paulo (Brazil), head of the firm’s infrastructure and arbitration practice. His 30-year practice as counsel, arbitrator or legal expert focuses on infrastructure projects, regulated industries and public procurement.
He holds a doctorate in public law from PUC-SP (Brazil) and has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University, University of Nottingham and George Washington University. He is chairman of CIArb Brazil Branch for the 2019-2022 term and an editorial board member of Public Procurement Law Review (PPLR).
Professor Sope-Williams Elegbe
Sope Williams-Elegbe is a Professor and Head of the Department of Mercantile Law and the deputy director of the African Procurement Law Unit, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She specialises in public procurement, anti-corruption law, development law and legal issues around using blockchain and artificial intelligence in the public sector.
She is the author of four books: Fighting Corruption in Public Procurement (2012); Public Procurement and Multilateral Development Banks (2017); with G. Quinot, Public Procurement Regulation for 21st Century Africa (2018) and Public Procurement Regulation in Africa: Procuring for development in uncertain times (2020).
Sope is a Vice-Chair of the Debarment and Exclusion sub-committee of the International Bar Association and a member of Transparency International's Working Group on Debarment and Exclusion. She was a member of the World Bank's International Advisory Group on Procurement (IAGP) from 2008-2011. She has been involved in advising international institutions and government bodies on procurement and anti-corruption matters.
Sope has an LLM (with distinction) from the London School of Economics and a PhD in public procurement and anti-corruption law from the University of Nottingham. She has taught at the universities of Stirling, Nottingham and Lagos.
Professor Geo Quinot
Geo Quinot is Professor of Law in the Department of Public Law at Stellenbosch University, South Africa; Founding Director of the African Procurement Law Unit (APLU) and Co-Director of the Socio- Economic Rights and Administrative Justice Research Project (SERAJ). He is also admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa. Quinot teaches administrative law and public procurement law in the Law Faculty and the School for Public Leadership at Stellenbosch University. He also regularly instructs public administrators in both administrative law and public procurement regulation.
His research focuses on general administrative law, including a particular focus on the regulation of state commercial activity such as public procurement and legal education. He has published widely in these areas. He is the author, co-author and/or editor of seven book publications. Quinot is a past editor-in-chief of the journal, Stellenbosch Law Review andthe founding editor-in-chief of the new open-access journals, African Public Procurement Law Journal and Ukumela: Journal of legal reasoning, writing and education. The latter two journals are the first of their kind on the African continent.In 2012 and 2013 he served on a ministerial task team in the South African National Department of Health, focusing on the reform of health procurement systems in South Africa.
In 2014, he completed an extensive research project for the South African National Treasury on the establishment of the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer and subsequently assisted that Office on reform of the South African public procurement regulatory regime. As an advocate, Quinot advises on matters relating to administrative law and especially public procurement law to both public buyers (organs of state) and suppliers to the state.
Quinot obtained the degrees BA(Law) and LLB, both cum laude, at Stellenbosch University; LLM at the University of Virginia School of Law in the USA as a Fulbright scholar; MA (Higher Education Studies) cum laude at the University of the Free State; MPA cum laude from the University of Birmingham in the UK and LLD (doctorate in law) at Stellenbosch University.
Cons. Luigi Fiorentino Consigliere
Luigi Fiorentino is one of the leading experts of procurement law and policy in Italy. He is currently the Chief of Staff of the Italian Minister of Education and was formerly the Chief of Staff of the Minister of Education and Universities (from September 2019 to 9 January 2020, until when the ministerial competences for education and university were separated into two ministries).
He was previously the Chief of Staff of the Italian Minister of Agriculture (2018), of the Italian Minister for regional affairs (2015) and of the Italian Ministers of Education and Universities (2011-2014). He was Deputy Secretary of the Cabinet Office (from 2015 to 2018). He was General Secretary of the Italian Competition Authority (2007-2011) and from 2000 to 2001 was head of the Italian National authority for Public Purchasing (Provveditore generale dello Stato).
Luigi has published extensively in the field of public administration, public procurement and public management and has presented his work at numerous conferences in Italy and abroad. He is the scientific director of the Italian Review for Public Management (RIPM) and editor of numerous collections on public procurement law and policy in Italy. In his writing he has explored how the legislative framework applicable to public procurement in Italy has evolved in the past 20 years focusing in particular on the development of the system for the aggregation of public purchasing via the establishment of central purchasing bodies.
He teaches “sociology of organization – advanced course” at the University of Rome La Sapienza, and “Public Management” at the Master in Management and Policies of Public Administrations at the University Luiss of Rome, School of Government. Luigi has a Degree in Law Cum Laude and a specialisation (LLM/Diploma) in Administrative Law and Public Administration (awarded with 90/90) from the University of Naples. View further details.
Professor Anna Gorczynska
Anna Gorczynska, PhD, Assistant Professor, is employed in the Department of the European Economic Law, Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Lodz, Poland. In 2014, she was nominated for the Director of the Centre of Public Procurement and Public-Private Partnership (www.centrumzp.uni.lodz.pl). The center was grounded on the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Lodz as the first scientific and research center on efficiency of public procurement system in Poland.
Anna Gorczynska read law on the University of Lodz and prepared her master-thesis titled “Direct investments of the foreign capital in Poland”. In 2005 she prepared her dissertation titled “Public procurement in the EU law” and she is actually preparing the habillitation on green public procurement. She was also law student on German universities (Muenster, Giessen, Bonn). She is postgraduate of International Law and Bussines Law School organized by Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. in the cooperation with Jagiellonian University (1994, 1996).
In 1999 she participated in the Internationale-Parlaments-Praktika in Bundestag, Germany. In 2000-2002 she was working in regional lobbing offices in Brussels. She was also guest-professor on the Freie University in Berlin, University in Giessen, University in Bari and Alma Mater Studiorum Universita di Bologna. She regulary participates as a guest speaker in the international conferences (eg. 2010 - International Public Procurement Congress in Benjin, China; 2011 – Copenhagen, Public Procurement Global Revolution V; 2013 – Public Procurement Global Revolution, Nottingham; 2014-International Public Procurement Conference, Dublin, 2015 – Public Procurement Global Revolution, Nottingham, 2017 – Forum CompraVerde, Roma, 2019 - Public Procurement Global Revolution, Nottingham, 2019 – Global Procurement Conference, Villa Mondragone, Italy, 2019 – Polish-Chinese Conference, Shanghai).
Her main scientific interests and publications refer to public procurement law (recently mainly green public procurement), protection of environment, PPP, competition law, regional policy, structure funds of the EU, e-administration, ICT, sports law.