Partner

Regulated Procurement

Expertise

Ammar is a regulated procurement specialist with many years’ experience of major public and utilities sector projects, including the award of complex high-value contracts, the creation and operation of PPPs and the establishment of pangovernment framework agreements. His sector experience covers energy, water, construction, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, transport, defence, waste and information technology.

In addition to acting for central government departments and local authorities, Ammar also has extensive experience of advising bidders and government contractors on all financial, reputational, legal and implementation risks of working with the public sector.

Ammar Advises

  • Large UK and multinational corporates
  • Central government departments
  • International and multilateral organisations

Experience Highlights

At McKinsey:

  • Advising the firm’s global public sector practice on all areas of legal, financial, implementation and reputational risk arising from McKinsey’s work for governments, multilaterals, and third sector organisations.
  • Advising on the procurement processes of over fifty countries and a range of multi-lateral organisations, including in relation to UN, ECB, EBRD, European Commission, Islamic Development Bank and World Bank funded projects.
  • Assisting the Firm with responding to public sector RFPs, and navigating local law requirements applicable to government contractors and foreign businesses.
  • Advising on specific issues arising from over a hundred Firm engagements, including information sharing and other antitrust issues, insider trading and disclosure of material non-public information, managing conflicts of interest, and protection of intellectual property.
  • Advising on issues of professional and/or reputational risk across EMEA, including on issues arising from freedom of information legislation, data protection legislation and anti-bribery legislation.
  • Establishing and leading the public sector legal team in EMEA, including recruiting, training and supervising in-house lawyers in various jurisdictions.
  • Reviewing and negotiating a variety of contractual arrangements with public sector and non-profit clients, including framework, consulting, licensing and R&D agreements.
  • Appointing, managing and supervising the Firm’s external legal advisers and public sector experts across all matters
  • Member of the Firm’s Public Sector Senior Leadership Committee, with responsibility for determining the strategic direction of the Firm’s global public sector practice.
  • Providing broad risk management support to the Firm’s leadership, including sitting on a number of the Firm’s risk committees, with responsibility for evaluating all public sector clients and engagements for reputational, legal, financial and delivery risks.

At Simmons & Simmons:

  • Advising the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (as was) on the establishment of the Energy Technologies Institute, a £1 billion public-private partnership
  • Advising Transport for London in relation to the Congestion Charging Scheme, the Low Emission Zone, the introduction of tag & beacon technology, and a number of other complex high-value contracts
  • Advising the Ministry of Defence on the procurement, State aid and other EU law issues relating to a number of large PPP/PFI projects, including the DERA/QinetiQ PPP and its subsequent flotation, the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft project, the Military Flying Training Systems project, the Future Defence Supply Chain Initiative project, and the Defence Training Review
  • Advising Nabucco International Company on the procurement and State aid aspects of a Euro 8 billion pipeline project to bring natural gas to Europe from the Caspian Basin, via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Germany and Austria
  • Advising Network Rail, Yorkshire Forward and the National Railway Museum on the procurement law aspects of the £1.2 billion redevelopment of York Central
  • Advising the Department for Work and Pensions on the award of major ‘Pan Government Asset’ framework agreements for IT services
  • Advising Veolia in relation to various acquisitions and regulated procurements carried out by its water businesses in the UK.

Publications

  • The article, “When damages are not enough”, published in Construction Law 2004 15 (9) 26-28, and described as “prescient” by Deeny J in Federal Security Services Limited v Chief Constable for the Police Service of Northern Ireland [2009] NICh 3 (High Court of Northern Ireland, judgment handed down on 25 February 2009)
  • The procurement and EU law sections to the “England and Wales” chapter in the book A Practical Guide to PPP in Europe, published by City and Financial 2008
  • The “Defence” chapter in the book Public-Private Partnerships: A Practical Analysis, published by Globe Law and Business 2006
  • The procurement section of the “Defence” chapter of the Butterworths PFI Manual

Career History

Previous Law Firms

  • McKinsey & Company, Associate General Counsel (2009-2012)
  • Simmons & Simmons, Senior Associate (2000-2009)

Education

  • King’s College London LLB, LLM
  • Birkbeck College, MA

Expertise

Back to top

Ammar is a regulated procurement specialist with many years’ experience of major public and utilities sector projects, including the award of complex high-value contracts, the creation and operation of PPPs and the establishment of pangovernment framework agreements. His sector experience covers energy, water, construction, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, transport, defence, waste and information technology.

In addition to acting for central government departments and local authorities, Ammar also has extensive experience of advising bidders and government contractors on all financial, reputational, legal and implementation risks of working with the public sector.

Ammar Advises

Back to top

  • Large UK and multinational corporates
  • Central government departments
  • International and multilateral organisations

Experience Highlights

Back to top

At McKinsey:

  • Advising the firm’s global public sector practice on all areas of legal, financial, implementation and reputational risk arising from McKinsey’s work for governments, multilaterals, and third sector organisations.
  • Advising on the procurement processes of over fifty countries and a range of multi-lateral organisations, including in relation to UN, ECB, EBRD, European Commission, Islamic Development Bank and World Bank funded projects.
  • Assisting the Firm with responding to public sector RFPs, and navigating local law requirements applicable to government contractors and foreign businesses.
  • Advising on specific issues arising from over a hundred Firm engagements, including information sharing and other antitrust issues, insider trading and disclosure of material non-public information, managing conflicts of interest, and protection of intellectual property.
  • Advising on issues of professional and/or reputational risk across EMEA, including on issues arising from freedom of information legislation, data protection legislation and anti-bribery legislation.
  • Establishing and leading the public sector legal team in EMEA, including recruiting, training and supervising in-house lawyers in various jurisdictions.
  • Reviewing and negotiating a variety of contractual arrangements with public sector and non-profit clients, including framework, consulting, licensing and R&D agreements.
  • Appointing, managing and supervising the Firm’s external legal advisers and public sector experts across all matters
  • Member of the Firm’s Public Sector Senior Leadership Committee, with responsibility for determining the strategic direction of the Firm’s global public sector practice.
  • Providing broad risk management support to the Firm’s leadership, including sitting on a number of the Firm’s risk committees, with responsibility for evaluating all public sector clients and engagements for reputational, legal, financial and delivery risks.

At Simmons & Simmons:

  • Advising the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (as was) on the establishment of the Energy Technologies Institute, a £1 billion public-private partnership
  • Advising Transport for London in relation to the Congestion Charging Scheme, the Low Emission Zone, the introduction of tag & beacon technology, and a number of other complex high-value contracts
  • Advising the Ministry of Defence on the procurement, State aid and other EU law issues relating to a number of large PPP/PFI projects, including the DERA/QinetiQ PPP and its subsequent flotation, the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft project, the Military Flying Training Systems project, the Future Defence Supply Chain Initiative project, and the Defence Training Review
  • Advising Nabucco International Company on the procurement and State aid aspects of a Euro 8 billion pipeline project to bring natural gas to Europe from the Caspian Basin, via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Germany and Austria
  • Advising Network Rail, Yorkshire Forward and the National Railway Museum on the procurement law aspects of the £1.2 billion redevelopment of York Central
  • Advising the Department for Work and Pensions on the award of major ‘Pan Government Asset’ framework agreements for IT services
  • Advising Veolia in relation to various acquisitions and regulated procurements carried out by its water businesses in the UK.

Publications

Back to top

  • The article, “When damages are not enough”, published in Construction Law 2004 15 (9) 26-28, and described as “prescient” by Deeny J in Federal Security Services Limited v Chief Constable for the Police Service of Northern Ireland [2009] NICh 3 (High Court of Northern Ireland, judgment handed down on 25 February 2009)
  • The procurement and EU law sections to the “England and Wales” chapter in the book A Practical Guide to PPP in Europe, published by City and Financial 2008
  • The “Defence” chapter in the book Public-Private Partnerships: A Practical Analysis, published by Globe Law and Business 2006
  • The procurement section of the “Defence” chapter of the Butterworths PFI Manual

Career History

Back to top

Previous Law Firms

  • McKinsey & Company, Associate General Counsel (2009-2012)
  • Simmons & Simmons, Senior Associate (2000-2009)

Education

  • King’s College London LLB, LLM
  • Birkbeck College, MA