Addleshaws and Pinsents in £200m education deal

Addleshaw Booth & Co and Pinsent Curtis Biddle have negotiated one of the largest education outsourcing deals ever witnessed.
Addleshaws advised EduAction and Pinsents advised the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) on a £200m contract for EduAction to manage and deliver education services to the London Borough of Waltham Forest.
EduAction is a joint venture between Addleshaws' client Nord Anglia and Amey, which was set up specifically for this deal. It will work in partnership with the local education authority to deliver school improvement and support services.
Addleshaws partner Jonathan Davey led the firm's team on the deal, having worked for Nord Anglia in the past on education work in Hackney as well as on a major PFI deal for the Ministry of Defence in Harrogate.
Davey said: "We started working on this in the spring and it was key that it got finished in plenty of time for the start of the new academic year. It was quite a tight schedule, because EduAction were only chosen in the Spring."
Pinsents partner Andrew Walsh in the London office led the firm's team on the deal, while the council called on its own in-house lawyer Jeremy Walling for advice.
Davey said: "Everybody, including the DfES, was feeling their way, because this contract has gone further than ever before in terms of the range and quantity of services that have gone out to the private sector.
"Several hundred staff have transferred across to EduAction, so at a local level that's quite a political and emotional event."