GE completes UK panel review

General Electric (GE) Commercial Finance has completed its on-line auction in a bid to rationalise the company’s legal roster and slash its legal spend.

GE Commercial Finance, the division formerly known as GE Capital, launched the bidding process to select firms in the UK, last Spring after the conglomerate completed a similar process in the US in 2003.

Firms understood to have scooped a place on the coveted panel include Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May.

As part of the process firms were asked to submit data on fee rates, areas of expertise and knowledge of the structurally complex group.

GE confirmed the conclusion of the tender process but declined to comment on which firms have been added to the panel.