Public Procurement

Full-service public procurement lawyers for all tender procedures

Experienced attorneys handling all aspects of public procurement law

Whether you’re a public or private contracting party, you know the risks that come with the procurement process. With procurement rules subject to frequent change and increasing complexity, you need a team that ensures that your business or organisation complies with all procurement rules, on time and with attention to even the smallest details. This is why public bodies and utilities operators trust us to prepare and carry out their tender procedures.

We also make sure that private bidders wishing to participate in public tenders have a seat at the table: we secure the compliance of your bid, negotiate with contracting authorities, and, if necessary, work to protect you by challenging unfair tender provisions and award decisions.

Key Contacts

All team members

Areas of specialisation

Full-service provider

If you represent a contracting authority, you can trust our public procurement lawyers through all stages of an infrastructure project: from tenders for architectural work to procuring project management and controlling services, planning services, construction and infrastructural works (from general contractors to specialised firms) to tendering technical and infrastructural facility management services.

Strategic tender planning

Before the tender procedure even starts, we deploy our expertise and vast market experience to support contracting authorities. We will work with you to develop the tender strategy for the entire project and customise the individual tender procedures with an eye to determining the estimated contract value, adequately distributing the purchase in lots, choosing the best procedure, and developing suitable criteria for eligibility, selection and awarding.

Drafting tender documents

We view our procurement work as an opportunity to collaborate with you and your organisation. This includes drafting all necessary tender documents in concert with the technical advisors of the project. And we mean all of them: procedural provisions, scope of work and evaluation matrices, supply, service and construction contracts, possible financing contracts, maintenance contracts and more. This is what we mean with our comprehensive approach; in doing so, we can rely on the know-how and experience of our commercial contract specialists.

Acting as awarding entity

We can act as the awarding entity and conduct tender procedures for you so that you can focus on your day-to-day business. This means that we – on your behalf – announce the tender, manage inquiries, open and assess RFPs and bids, support the technical and commercial assessment of bids, manage defect remedy and correspondence with bidders, draft result-oriented assessment records and the award proposals.

Documentation

Reviews and audits can come at any moment during or after the procurement process. The comprehensive and audit-proof documentation of all tender procedures is part of our approach, should you ever need to appear for review proceedings before the administrative courts or for an ex-post audit from supervisory and auditing bodies. Our public procurement lawyers draft and maintain the documentation in user-friendly electronic form, adhering to your particular requirements in language that is easy to read and search.

Tender review proceedings

When national and international courts and authorities initiate public procurement review proceedings, we’re on your side, along with the decades of experience we’ve amassed in successfully representing contracting authorities and bidders. We will work to develop a customised strategy for you, including the choice of witnesses, technical experts and other means of evidence.

Advising bidders in tender procedures

With us, you don’t have to fear the spotlight of public tender procedures. We will work with you to focus on recognising and preventing discriminatory tender conditions at an early stage of the process. We will ensure that your bid or RFP complies with the legal, technical and economic tender provisions to prevent incompliant bids and RFPs that could lead to the exclusion of your bid from the tender procedure.

Compliance

We support public contracting authorities and private enterprises in implementing Compliance Management Systems and in planning and implementing self-cleaning measures so that you can be re-admitted to public tenders. Learn more about our Compliance Practice.

Leading the legal field

Our lawyers are involved in key transactions and matters across the region, bringing their industry expertise and specialised business knowledge to add value to our clients’ work.

Advised hospital association on tender for critical project management platform

Provided strategic advice for public transport services

Advised cultural institutions on tender procedures for worldwide art transport

Expert advice for strategic tender planning, documentation and review proceedings

Comprehensive advice for Vienna hospitals

Our team is advising the Vienna Hospital Association on all aspects of the investment and restructuring programme of all Vienna Hospitals (all hospital and health care infrastructure by the City of Vienna) over the next five years. The programme includes a variety of projects from completely new hospitals to large refurbishment projects during ongoing hospital operations.

To manage this huge infrastructure programme (with estimated construction cost of well over one billion euros), the City of Vienna Hospital Association founded Wiener Gesundheitsverbund Projektentwicklungs- und Baumanagement GmbH (“PBG”), a special purpose vehicle wholly owned by the City of Vienna, incorporated to manage all hospital /healthcare infrastructure construction in Vienna for the next 10 years.

Following the incorporation, the Wiener Gesundheitsverbund conducted a tender for all legal consulting services to the Wiener Gesundheitsverbund and the PBG for the next five years, and Wolf Theiss emerged as the winner of this tender (as first ranked panellist in a panel of three).

Most recently, we advised the client on a tender for a project management software/platform which in the future will be the main documentation and communication hub for all projects under the programme.

Reorganisation of public transport services ordering system

We provided comprehensive strategic advice to Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR) GmbH in connection with numerous matters regarding the reorganisation of the ordering regime for (subsidised) public passenger transport services as well as advised on “Intelligent Transport Systems” and elaboration of a General Rule based on the PSO-Regulation.

Tender procedures for art institutions and museums

We advised numerous renowned cultural institutions and museum operating companies in connection with tender procedures for worldwide art transport and a Europe-wide negotiated procedure concerning the procurement of general planning services for the implementation of the project “Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum, Silver Chamber – extension of showrooms”. We also advised the Albertina Museum with regard to a tender procedure concerning security services and other matters.

What others say about us

“We have worked with Wolf Theiss’ procurement practice and administrative law for many years and are more than happy with their team. Every single lawyer in the team is eminently qualified and efficient. We greatly appreciate their clear and on-point advice and their responsiveness. What in-house peers should know about the team is that they have in-depth sector-specific knowledge in any field and are able to grasp the essential needs of your business in no time. They also have a very sizeable team so that you always feel well taken care of as a client and can quickly build up a productive business relationship. In our view, the Wolf Theiss procurement team is without doubt the best choice in the Austrian market.”
– The Legal 500