Staffordshire Legal Services
From the Public Sector, for the Public Sector
Profile
Sarah Dean
sarah.dean@staffordshire.gov.uk
Sarah is a Chartered Legal Executive in the Contracts Team of Staffordshire Legal Services.
Having been admitted as a Fellow of the Institute in 2007, Sarah has seven (7) years post
qualified experience.
Sarah has worked as a fee earner of Staffordshire Legal Services for over ten (10) years,
specialising in contracts and public procurement since 2009. During this time, Sarah has
dealt with a wide range of contracts and procurement issues including a number of large
scale projects.
Her work covers all aspects of the public procurement process including advising on OJEU
notices, the preparation of procurement documentation (including PQQ, ITT, descriptive
documents and NDA’s for CD), drafting and advising on commercial contracts, framework
agreements, partnership working and governance aspects of such partnerships and
collaborations.
Experience
Sarah has previous experience in the private sector and prior to specialising in the Contracts
Team Sarah has six years combined experience in the Commercial Property and Child
Protection Teams of Staffordshire Legal Services.
Some of Sarah’s more recent examples of work are as follows: 
Sarah is the legal lead of a highways related procurement project carrying a value of
potentially £80 million a year known as Infrastructure+. As part of her role, Sarah has
provided legal support the County Council’s Legal Strategic Lead and assisted in the
co-ordination of a team of legal professionals across varying legal disciplines in order
to facilitate a project of this scale. The process has involved a complex competitive
dialogue procedure to conclude a suite of legal documentation including an
overarching agreement to secure the appropriate long term strategic partnership and
associated governance, NEC3 Engineering and Construction and Term Service
provisions, related warranties and guarantees, commercial leases and licences, ICT
licencing and implementation and an extensive due diligence process and continuous
legal advice and commercial client support throughout the project.

Sarah advised on a complex call off contract award on the basis of IMLS Framework
Agreement with a potential value of between £5million and £7million to secure a
package of managed ICT learning and connectivity services for Staffordshire Schools
and Learning Establishments.

Sarah advised on the award of a Staffordshire County Council Framework Agreement
and related call off award with a potential value of between £1.4 and £6 million to
secure voice and data cabling services plus telephony works for Staffordshire County
Council.

Sarah has advised on a wide range of contract and procurement related matters
including, multiple lot framework awards, data processing issues involving advice
surrounding processing outside of the European Economic Area and intellectual
property rights advice.
Strategic Talents

Drafting

Negotiating

Risk/benefit analysis

Coordination of Client & legal resources and task management

Supervision

Customer Relations
Current role
In her role as Chartered Legal Executive in the Contracts Team, Sarah works for clients
across Staffordshire County Council. Her work includes:

advising on public procurement procedures and issues;

advising on the setting up and operation of framework agreements;

drafting, approving and revising commercial contracts for both works and services;

advising on compliance with internal governance structures and contract procedure
rules;

advising on the interpretation of contracts, in particular the operation of change control
procedures and extension or termination provisions; and

advising on how to deal with breaches of contract.
Professional Qualifications and Memberships
Qualification type
Fellow of the Institute of
Legal Executives
Member of the Institute of
Legal Executives
Institute of Legal Executives
Institute of Legal Executives
Institute of Legal Executives
Subject
Law
Date attained
2007
Law
2005
Professional Higher Diploma - Land Law
Professional Higher Diploma – Law of Contract
Professional Higher Diploma – Law of Tort
2005
2004
2003
Institute of Legal Executives
Institute of Legal Executives
Professional Higher Diploma – Civil Litigation
Part 1 of the Membership Qualification
2003
2002
Other
Sarah enjoys the diversity of legal work associated with contract and procurement related
matters.