PGR Student Members

Nouf Alluhidan

Holds 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. 

Muath Alzahim

Muath completed his undergraduate studies at Taibah University in Saudi Arabia, graduated with an LLB with First Class Honours. After that, he continued his studies in the UK as he did the Advanced Legal Studies LLM course at the University of Reading.

Muath’s thesis focuses on the area of Framework Agreements in public procurements. His research aims to analyse and assess the use of Framework Agreements in the Saudi legal system. Although Framework Agreements offer various benefits, they are associated with significant risks. The thesis will try to evaluate the extent of which these benefits are gained and how risks can be mitigated in the Saudi law.

Supervisors: Professor Anna La Chimia and Dr Aris Georgopoulos

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.

Supervisors: Professor Anna La Chimia and Dr Klara polackova Van der Ploeg 

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 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. 

The focus of Ashraf's PhD is on the existing supplier review system under the public procurement laws of Bangladesh. His research's objectives are to critically analyse the current supplier review system of Bangladesh and 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: Dr Luke Butler and Dr Peter Trepte

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.

Supervisors: Dr Luke Butler 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.

Supervisors: Professor Anna La Chimia and Dr Aris Georgopoulos

 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).

Supervisors: Dr Luke Butler and Dr Peter Trepte

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: Dr Aris Georgopoulos and Dr Or Bassok 

Brian Sanya Mondoh

Brian Sanya Mondoh is a PGR student conducting research on the application of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLTs) and smart contracts in enhancing trust and data integrity in public procurement. Brian holds an LLM in Intellectual Property (Trademarks and Passing Off (Distinction)), a Postgraduate Diploma (Bar Professional Training Course) and an LLB from Nottingham Law School (Nottingham Trent University). Brian also holds the Commonwealth Caribbean’s Council of Legal Education Certificate (L.E.C) awarded by the Hugh Wooding Law School (Trinidad and Tobago).

Brian is a Dual Qualified Advocate, Barrister of England and Wales (Lincoln’s Inn (N.P)), and Attorney-at-Law at the Bar of Trinidad and Tobago. Brian regularly advises and speaks internationally on anti-money laundering and wash trading, crypto asset recovery, and financial and regulatory compliance of crypto asset businesses in jurisdictions monitored by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Brian has published research and commentary on the regulation of digital assets, Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (‘DAOs’) and Decentralised Finance (‘DeFi’). Brian’s co-authored work (Mondoh, Adami-Johnson, Green and Georgopoulos, 2022) has been listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list in various research networks and has been featured on Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computational Law Report Idea Forum on Composable Governance in the contexts of legal tech, business automation, and Web3.

Supervisors: Dr Oliver Butler, Dr Nichola Gervassis and Dr Aris Georgopoulos

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.

Supervisors: Professor Anna La Chimia and Dr Luke Butler 

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: Dr Peter Trepte and Professor Craig Rotherham