A&O lawyer joins 'young Turks' in PFI taskforce

Allen & Overy project finance senior assistant David Lee is the only lawyer to be appointed to the eight-strong Treasury Project Taskforce, which has been set up to drive forward PFI deals.

Lee, who has advised on PFI projects to build several prisons, the Docklands Light Railway and the Channel Tunnel rail link, joins seven other young recruits from industry, merchant banks and accountancy firms in a Treasury team led by former Linklaters & Paines lawyer and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson banker Adrian Montague (see profile below).

The taskforce has been set up in response to a review of PFI by Malcolm Bates, the chair of Pearl Assurance, who helped select the team.

Lee will leave A&O's employment to take up his two-year civil service contract because Bates said the taskforce should have salaried staff rather than secondees from industry and private practice.

Montague commented: "This is a really strong team of young Turks; they have the qualifications, the experience in PFI deals and the feel for what the private sector wants from PFI."