Honda has overhauled its legal panel and dumped Eversheds, issuing the national firm with a damning rebuke over its client management skills.
However, the national firm is fighting back and has already arranged for managing partner David Gray to visit Honda in order to find out what went wrong.
Honda used Eversheds’ Leeds office for litigation, but the company’s general counsel Christopher Morgan was particularly unimpressed when the firm’s client relationship partner could not even say where Honda was based.
Morgan told The Lawyer: “I dumped Eversheds and it’s unlikely we’ll work with them again. I think their customer relationship management is superficial.”
Eversheds’ Denise Jagger, who manages the firm’s client relationship programme, said: “Clearly something went wrong. We don’t yet know whether it was perceived or real, but that doesn’t really matter. It would be regrettable if this coloured people’s judgments, because there are many, many clients who are entirely satisfied.”
DLA, McDermott Will & Emery and Wragge & Co have each won a place on Honda’s panel for the first time.
McDermott partner Michael McFall brought the Honda corporate work from his previous firm Dorsey & Whitney; his competition partner Scott Megregian will also get instructions.
Morgan said: “Michael was so good that we weren’t going to lose him. McDermott has been very impressive.”
DLA won the work through the media team it poached from Denton Wilde Sapte and will advise on company commercial, IP litigation and media issues.
Wragges will advise the carmaker’s banking and retail finance arm Honda Finance, work that was previously handled in-house.
