Pinsent Masons and DLA Piper have won spots on Pearson’s first legal panel, alongside the publisher’s longstanding advisers Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF). 

The panel was led by general counsel Bjarne Tellmann and deputy GC for litigation and regulatory affairs Mike McQueeney, both based in New York. 

The process has now been concluded, with Pearson introducing two panels in the UK to cover corporate M&A, and IT and commercial. 

Longstanding advisers Freshfields and HSF have won top spots on the corporate panel, having acted on the company’s recent disposals of the Financial Times and The Economist. 

Meanwhile Pearson has also appointed Pinsent Masons and DLA Piper to its corporate panel in a bid to broaden its bench of panel advisers. Neither firm has acted for the company before, with their appointments meaning Fieldfisher has not won a corporate role on the panel. 

Fieldfisher has, however, been appointed onto the IT and commercial panel alongside Kemp Little and Pinsent Masons.   

The panel appointments are due to be reviewed in a year’s time. 

There is also a separate US panel process that is currently underway and is due to be concluded at the beginning of next year.