Speakers

Michael Bowsher has been a member of Monckton Chambers since 2001. Michael is best known for his unique practice in public procurement. Michael Bowsher QC has appeared in many of the major UK procurement cases over the last decade.

While maintaining his focus on procurement matters, Michael has also built a diverse practice based around EU and commercial law. He is involved in competition law (particularly damages claims by victims of anti-competitive conduct), regulatory challenges, commercial public law and substantial commercial disputes, particularly in construction, technology and public service sectors such as healthcare, transport, waste and utility provision.
Michael is involved increasingly in the growing area of Space Law.

As Visiting Professor at King's College, London he teaches public procurement law on the LLM course and is director of the distance learning course in public procurement law which leads to an MA from King’s.

The Open Contracting Partnership is a silo-busting collaboration across government, business, civil society and technologists to open up and transform government contracting worldwide to make it better and fairer. OCP works in over 30 countries around the world to bring open data and open government together to make sure public money is spent openly, fairly and effectively.

Before joining the Open Contracting Partnership, Gavin was Director of Campaigns and then Executive Director of Global Witness. He oversaw the organization’s groundbreaking and award-winning investigative, campaigning and advocacy work uncovering secret deals, corruption and conflict around the world. He helped create the international Publish What You Pay campaign and helped negotiate the intergovernmental Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative that brings together oil and mining companies, home- and host-governments and civil society to improve disclosure and oversight of over $1 trillion dollars of oil and mining money.

He is an expert on illicit financial flows, and helped lead global efforts to end the abuse of anonymous shell companies for money laundering and financial crime, including working with the British government’s recent presidency of the G8 and the Open Government Partnership. He has a Doctorate from the University of Reading and has worked with Chatham House in London and the United National Environmental Programme in the past on analyzing and investigating global environmental crime. Gavin is a 2021 Fellow of World Commerce & Contracting for making a significant contributions to the development of commercial and contract management.

Julian has specialised, for over 30 years: in Social Enterprise; Charity; Responsible Business; Public Service Reform and Innovation; Co-operatives and Stakeholder Participation; blending business and public benefit legal disciplines. He has been especially involved in the development and maturing of Social Enterprise, Social Finance, Social Value, and Social Impact Investment and Measurement and their application to Public Policy.

He promotes public value, purpose and partnership in Public Procurement and Public Sector Contracts and State Aid and Public Sector Grants, championing the Innovation Partnership. He promotes a distinctive approach to contracts as practical working agreements (as noted in the 2020 Kruger Report to Government on Civil Society).

He works particularly in relation to: Community Transport; Education (particularly Further Education); Health and Social Care; Rehabilitation and Justice; Renewable Energy; and Employment and Youth Services

Before joining Stone King, in 2018, Julian was co-head of the Bates Wells Charity and Social Enterprise Department and led the development of the education and other cross-departmental sector groups.

Caroline Nicholas is a Senior Legal Officer with the International Trade Law Division of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (the UNCITRAL Secretariat). She has served as Secretary to its Working Group on Procurement and Infrastructure Development, which drafted the UNCITRAL Model Law on Public Procurement (issued in 2011), an accompanying Guide to Enactment (2012), and other UNCITRAL documents in the field. As Secretary to this and other UNCITRAL Working Groups, she provides legal and policy advice and works in partnership with other international bodies engaged in public procurement policy activities. She advises on public procurement reform and its role in supporting international trade and development and the rule of law, and provides regular technical assistance to national governments in all regions.

She also serves as a Chairman of a UN Performance Appraisal Rebuttal Panel, and undertakes voluntary policy advice and conflict resolution roles within the UN Secretariat.

She previously advised on international war damage claims at the UN Compensation Commission, was a UN internal investigator, and has practised law in the City of London and Hong Kong.

Caroline is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Vienna International School. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Public Procurement Law Review and regular contributor to it and other journals. She is married with three children, and speaks four languages fluently.