Pinsent Masons appointed to Tees Valley Combined Authority legal panel

The Tees Valley Combined Authority is a partnership that includes Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland, and Stockton-on-Tees. The panel is an important part of the collaboration and enabling delivery that will help boost the region to drive economic growth, support communities and businesses and create more sustainable jobs.

Pinsent Masons has been appointed to provide a full range of legal services including corporate, property, planning, construction, regulatory, employment and litigation advice for large and significant infrastructure projects across the five authorities in the North East including transport, energy and regeneration projects. As well as the five authorities, the firm will also provide legal services for all organisations as part of the Combined Authority Group including the Teesworks site, the Teesside Freeport and Teesside International Airport.

Jon Riley, head of Pinsent Masons’ Leeds office, said: “We are delighted to have been appointed to the new Tees Valley Combined Authority legal panel. As a global firm with a longstanding presence and roots in the North of England, we bring the right experience - having advised on many of the UK’s most complex and critical energy, transport and infrastructure projects - together with essential local market and sector knowledge to work with the Combined Authority in getting their ambitious plans and projects consented and delivered. Devolution and the growing influence of levelling up will bring jobs and economic growth to the region with transport and low-carbon energy generation high on the agenda. We look forward to helping shape this new and exciting chapter for the region.”

Pinsent Masons’ appointment to the four-year legal panel will enable the Combined Authority Group to draw on the firm’s sectoral strength – internationally, nationally, and regionally – in particular advising on the full lifecycle of major infrastructure and energy projects. Pinsent Masons has been supporting the Combined Authority for a number of years, helping it deliver on its strategic plans, particularly relating to Teesside International Airport.

Jan Bessell, strategic Planning Advisor at Pinsent Masons said: “One of the most exciting opportunities about being part of the Tees Valley team is not just the enabling and delivery of the renewal and development programme in physical terms but the social programme ensuring that we all seek to inspire the future and deliver on long term social and environmental values.”

Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen, said: “We’re delighted to have signed Pinsent Masons as part of our new legal framework to support the game-changing projects we’re delivering across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool, including Teesworks, the Teesside Freeport, our airport and much more. They will not only help support us with their expert advice, but they’re going further to make sure local people across our region feel the benefit, by offering things such as local business support, skills workshops and interview training, and careers guidance, and so help to inspire the next generation of would-be lawyers.”