North East ERDF funding body appoints four law firms to panels

A North East body that provides risk finance to SMEs using European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) – North East Access to Finance (NEA2F) – has selected four law firms to provide legal advice.

NEA2F uses ERDF funding from the 2014-2020 programme as well as recycled funds from previous ERDF programmes.

The contract is to provide legal services for North East JEREMIE2 Fund and NEA2F itself. The four lots and the successful firms were:

• Lot 1: State aid, public procurement and EU law: DAC Beachcroft; Square One Law.
• Lot 2: Investment funds and related financial services regulatory matters: Square One Law; Eversheds.
• Lot 3: Corporate advice – re corporate finance, structures and governance: Ward Hadaway; Square One Law.
• Lot 4: General commercial advice: DAC Beachcroft; Ward Hadaway.

The contract was awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender in terms of (a) ability to deliver service to a high standard (weighting 60), (b) price (weighting 30) and (c) quality of proposal and value for money (weighting 10).