Laura Thornton

Laura Thornton is a Legal Director in Bird & Bird's market-leading public procurement team in London. Her practice focuses on Government Contracts.

Laura has extensive experience advising both public bodies and bidders on regulated procurement and public law, helping clients navigate complex processes with practical, commercial solutions.

She works with public sector organisations to design and run compliant procurement exercises, ensuring they achieve value for money whilst managing risk. For bidders, she provides strategic advice that strengthens their competitive position and maximises their chances of success.

Her practice focuses on IT/technology, utilities, healthcare and defence sectors, where she has developed deep knowledge of the specific regulatory and commercial challenges clients face in these markets. Her public law expertise complements her procurement work, particularly when advising on judicial review and regulatory compliance.

Her recent experience includes advising a substantial UK telecoms company on a complex procurement exercise by a central government customer, acting for a University to procure three major transformational change contracts in its Modern Networks Programme, acting for a local authority in connection with its re-procurement of facilities management services, and acting for a DfT body procuring both a replacement vessel for safety at sea operations and the decommissioning of a lighthouse. She was seconded to the Department of Health and Social Care during the pandemic, advising on legislative measures to implement social distancing.

She holds an LLB from the University of Law, an MSc in Global Ethics and a BA in Theology from the University of Birmingham, and was admitted as a solicitor in 2012.