Very few French companies have central control of their legal advisers through panels. The Gallic legal system still relies heavily on old contacts and individual relationships. But a quiet revolution is taking place, and one man who is heavily involved is Société Générale’s (SocGen) Frédéric de Brouwer.

Brought into the bank at the start of 2005 to oversee the procurement of external legal services, de Brouwer launched a panel review in the summer. The review follows Anglo-Saxon models and has seen de Brouwer talk to his counterparts in UK banks such as Barclays to get the method right.

Among the potential changes in how SocGen uses lawyers is the possibility that it will plump for a number of small, specialist panels in addition to a single global one. De Brouwer is looking at UK, US and French firms and the resultant list of advisers will owe a great deal to the exhaustive selection process and the man leading it.