Leading property lawyer and Private Finance Initiative (PFI) specialist Stan Gniadkowski will take a major PFI project worth £193 million with him when he leaves DJ Freeman to join Wilde Sapte in the New Year.
The Octagon Healthcare contract being handled by Gniadkowski is the first and only hospital building PFI scheme to be signed so far.
The Government hopes many more such projects will follow, but health sector PFI work is less attractive than other PFI work as it is acknowledged as being fraught with difficulties.
Gniadkowski, whose impending move to D J Freeman was originally announced in the spring, said: “It is the client's right to choose who they will be represented by and DJ Freeman will have to accept that.”
Octagon Healthcare is a consortium formed by John Laing and General Healthcare Group. Gniadkowski said that he used to work in-house for John Laing and was the initial contact for the firm.
He said Octagon was following him to Wilde Sapte “partly because of me but also because of Wilde Sapte's excellent banking and finance practice, a major requirement for any PFI work”.
