For public institutions

Procurement design and competitive process

Define what you actually need before you go to market — which is where most public procurements go wrong, long before a proposal arrives.

Structure a competitive process that produces genuine comparability between very different bidders, and that holds up to the board, the auditor, and the newspaper.

See the Utilities Modernization selection

“The competitive process Patrick and Chase designed allowed the university to truly compare apples to apples in evaluating two very different companies with very different project concepts, in a way that was fair to both competitors.”

— Doug Castleberry, Retired President and COO, CenTrio — the selected partner

For public institutions

Transaction structuring and negotiation

Get the operational detail and the risk transfer right. That is where these deals succeed or fail — not in the up-front payment, which is the number everyone looks at first and the one that matters least.

Sit on your side of the table through negotiation, from term sheet to close.

See how the risk was allocated

“Patrick drove the parties to think beyond the existing market precedents and to consider operational details and operational risk transfer in ways that would benefit the university and its stakeholders while also meeting the needs of the private industry partner.”

— Joseph Seliga, Partner, Mayer Brown LLP

For private companies

Selling to public institutions

Why institutional buyers stall, what a board or a legislative auditor needs to see before anyone can say yes, and how to shape a proposal that survives a public process.

This is not lobbying and it is not introductions. It is understanding how the decision actually gets made — from someone who spent years making it.

See the deals from the other side

“It is not an exaggeration to say that Patrick's leadership has shifted the market conditions for higher education P3 energy transactions.”

— Ed Tinsley, Retired Chief Executive Officer, Bernhard

What an engagement looks like

For a public institution, I can take on a single stage or stay with the transaction from definition through negotiation: turning an unclear need into a procurement plan, designing the competitive process and the evaluation structure, or working through terms, operating requirements and risk allocation with a selected partner.

For a private firm, I look at the opportunity from the buyer’s side — how the decision will actually be made, what the public record and the governing approvals have to support, and where a proposal is likely to stall. That is strategy and proposal discipline. It is not lobbying, introductions or access.

The work product follows the engagement rather than a fixed menu: options memos, RFP and evaluation language, term-sheet issues lists, negotiation plans, board and committee presentations — whatever the decision in front of you actually requires.

Not sure which of these you need?

Get in touch