Legal services

Tender description

This Prior Information Notice (PIN) is not a call for competition. The purpose of this PIN is to notify the market of the Department of Health's intention to hold a supplier information day on Thursday 12.1.2017 in central London. The Department intends to run a procurement to establish a panel of law firms — pursuant to a multi-supplier pseudo framework agreement — to act for, and provide advice to, the Department of Health in connection with Civil Litigation Arbitration and Mediation against companies in the pharmaceutical industry. The requirement will be for the provision of exploratory legal and professional advice, market structure analysis (incorporating financial analysis) and representation within civil proceedings. The scope of civil proceedings may include but shall not be limited to investigation into deceit, anti-competitive agreements, patent infringement and the abuse of dominant market positions by companies. The procurement will relate to legal services within the meaning of Schedule 3 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Given that the procurement process will relate to ‘social and other specific services’ only, it will be subject to limited regulation and accordingly will be conducted in accordance with Regulations 74 to 76 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. A supplier engagement day will be held with interested organisations on Thursday 12.1.2017. Details of how to attend the day are provided in Section II.8 (Additional Information) below.