Margaret Rose

Margaret is a Senior Partner in the Trinidad and Tobago office. She leads the Public Commercial Law & Litigation department. Called to the bar of Trinidad and Tobago in 1995 and qualified to practice throughout the Caribbean, Margaret holds an LLB (Hons), an LLM in Corporate Commercial Law from the University of the West Indies and is currently completing a doctorate in Public Procurement Policy (Research & Practice) at the University of Bath, UK.

Margaret has extensive litigation, commission of inquiry and jury trial experience and her specific areas of expertise include corporate criminal liability, public commercial law with an emphasis on public procurement, public sector contracting, bid-challenge management, construction and infrastructure contracting risk management, freedom of information and constitutional law. Margaret has developed a unique specialisation in public procurement law through her role as Executive Director of the Caribbean Procurement Institute between 2006 – 2017. Margaret has been involved in developing and delivering public procurement law training and capacity building interventions, revising procurement policies, drafting tender rules and documentation, and providing legal advice on bidding disputes and procurement law compliance risk for public sector organisations across the Caribbean.

Margaret brings a wealth of expertise in managing litigation risk in the public sector and for both public sector buyers and suppliers providing advice and representation in matters relating to corporate criminal liability including anti-corruption, corporate larceny, fraud, bid-rigging, collusion, anti-money laundering, whistleblowing, and integrity in public life. Margaret has conducted procurement fraud audits, acted as counsel in arbitrations and has served as arbitrator in procurement, and construction contracts. Margaret has served on several state and private sector boards and has chaired Procurement Advisory Committees and Tenders Committees, is a former Vice Chairman of the local Chapter of Transparency International, the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute (TTTI), a former executive member of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago and the Criminal Bar Association of Trinidad and Tobago.

In addition to her firm commitments, since 2017 Margaret is Principal Consultant at the Procurement Innovation & Leadership Lab (UK and Caribbean), the successor organization to the Caribbean Procurement Institute, and she also serves on the board of the Caribbean Institute for Forensic Accounting (CIFA).

Margaret is enthusiastic about the intersection of law, economy and the society and exploring opportunities for positive system transformation. To this end, she has initiated several civic and social entrepreneurial organizations and projects. She was awarded the Global Social Entrepreneurship Award by the International Anti-Corruption Committee (IACC) and Transparency International in 2014 for founding one of the most innovative anti-corruption projects that year, Disclosure Today – a social platform that digitized freedom of information requests and provided pro bono advice to citizens. Margaret also founded the U-Solve School of Social Entrepreneurship UK which spearheaded the development of and published a White Paper on a new public contracting model – the ‘Public Private Purpose Partnership’ for funding social initiatives that assist in meeting national commitments relating to the SDG goals. Margaret is also a founding member of the Future Law Collaborative which is an organization bringing together lawyers worldwide working in groups and individually to leverage the law in their respective niche specialisations as a strategic intervention point for a safer, more just, regenerative future.

Margaret is also recognised for her passionate advocacy and public speaking and has presented at conferences extensively across the globe in the area of public procurement, governance and anti-corruption including in Tunisia, Germany, Nigeria, Canada, Holland, Sweden, Slovenia, the Philippines, United States, United Kingdom and throughout the English-Speaking Caribbean. Margaret has also delivered TED Talks in two continents, TEDx Port of Spain and TEDx Brighton.

Margarets’ publications include:

Rose, M., Blaj, A., et al., 2020. Negotiating the New Normal: Measures to Improve Transparency and Cooperation in Government Procurement & Trade in Times of Crisis. [Online] United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Rose, M. and Singh, S., 2018. Co-Creating a Better Future: Public Private Purpose Partnerships for SDG Progress [Online] U-Solve, Bath UK.
Rose, M. 2015. Public Procurement Policy Considerations: Trade, Governance & Development Chap. 8 in I. Pinto McKoy and E. Berman (eds.) Public Administration & Policy in the Caribbean, Routledge, pp. 159 – 178.
Rose, M., 2014. The Disclosure Toolkit: Step by Step Guide for Managing Disclosure Obligations in Public Procurement Caribbean Procurement Institute Ltd, Port of Spain.