Government and Public Sector
Using a combination of legal expertise, practical experience and innovative thinking, we help organisations across the public sector to deliver on their key drivers and provide optimised services and solutions with limited resources, while minimising risk.

“Shepherd and Wedderburn has a range of expertise with the ability to tackle diverse and complex issues facing local government organisations.”

Chambers (2025)

Public bodies are under enormous pressure to deliver maximum value from limited resources. If they fail to do so, the scrutiny can be intense. This applies in everything they do, not least the procurement and improvement of property and infrastructure. We are experienced in high-profile and complex projects across those sectors, including housing, schools, hospitals, waste, wastewater, district heating, renewable energy, prisons, blue light, justice, defence, roads, and energy from waste.

Negotiating a robust contract that also provides value-for-money requires a balanced approach. We help public sector bodies to achieve this, and also assist with operational variations to the contract while work is in progress. We use innovative approaches when required, and have extensive experience of advising on many delivery models and solutions, including City Region Deal projects, the pathfinder Growth Accelerator Model, Council-owned delivery models and procurement using revenue finance models (including PFI, PPP, NPD, hub and similar models).

We can support you through each stage of your project – from outline business case to procurement, construction, operation, project expiry and beyond. We have advised clients on projects with operating lives of 25 years or more.

We also advise on a wide range of other issues that are important to public sector organisations, including statutory powers and governance, judicial reviews and legal challenges, freedom of information, compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duties, and litigation and inquiries.

Over the years we have built strong relationships across the public sector: many of our clients see us as trusted advisers, and we are consistently ranked highly by the two leading legal directories. Many of our team also act for private sector organisations, and we can apply our market insight to anticipate the key drivers and priorities for both sides.

This practical experience and market knowledge means that we understand our clients’ requirements, both now and in the future, and make a real contribution to finding the best solution for our clients.

Meet our key contacts

Neil Maclean

Partner and Head of Employment

Contact by email

Our expertise

Our sectors

Knowledge

What’s in a name? CSOP share options to be re-branded and expanded

TCC judgment reaffirms that compliance with a contract is key for payment

Bang on: The laws around fireworks displays

About us

Build a career with us

Government and Public SectorUsing a combination of legal expertise, practical experience and innovative thinking, we help organisations across the public sector to deliver on their key drivers and provide optimised services and solutions with limited resources, while minimising risk.

Martyn’s Law

Neil Maclean

Meet our key contacts

Neil Maclean

Meet our full team

Lisa Ambrus

Joanna Boag-Thomson

Nathaniel Buckingham

Jonathan Carey

Stephen Colliston

Iain Drummond

Leonore Dupont

Natasha Durkin

Kara Gallagher

Andrew Hall

Neil Maclean

Scott McCallum

Martin McGuinness

George McKinlay

Steven McLaughlin

Euan McLeod

Jamie McRorie

Euan Murray

Kara Paton

Ben Pilbrow

Euan Rennie

Kenzie Sharkey

Nigel Sievwright

Agata Starczewska

Lauren Thomson

Neil Maclean

Neil Maclean

Memberships and accreditations

Government and Public Sector
Using a combination of legal expertise, practical experience and innovative thinking, we help organisations across the public sector to deliver on their key drivers and provide optimised services and solutions with limited resources, while minimising risk.