Linklaters loses its grip on Barclays as bank announces revamped panel

2 July 2009 | By Kit Chellel

Following a three-month review, the bank has finalised the 129 places on its 11 sub panels, with Linklaters being retained for four of the categories. Following Barclays’ last major review, which was carried out in 2007, Linklaters was retained on seven separate panels.

Addleshaw Goddard won spots on the general advisory, litigation, corporate recovery and property management panels, in addition to holding onto positions on the human resources, private equity and lending and finance categories.

Barclays group general counsel Mark Harding said: “In the current environment, it’s  increasingly important to ensure we have the right choice of panel firms to meet our diverse needs, providing good governance and risk management.”

The general advisory panel was unchanged aside from the addition of Addleshaws.

On the commercial panel, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), Bristows and Lovells won places this year, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Addleshaws all lost out.

The corporate recovery panel saw places for Addleshaw Goddard, BLP and Osborne Clark, but not for Bond Pearce and Linklaters.

Birketts, Blake Lapthon and CMS Cameron McKenna were appointed on the lending and finance panel, replacing Boyes Turner, Linklaters, Shearman & Sterling and Taylor Walton.

Clifford Chance, which has advised Barclays on major issues throughout the economic crisis, won a place on nine of the bank’s 11 panels. It was included in the litigation panel, along with newcomers Addleshaw Goddard and Hammonds. 

Barclays head of legal operations Cate Campany said the group had undertaken close analysis of its legal costs as part of the review, adding: “Given the current market conditions, greater transparency is important to us, particularly understanding the value to the firms of the services they provide.”

The new panel will run from July 2009 until June 2011.

The advisors in full are:

 

General Advisory panel

Addleshaw Goddard (n=new)

Allen & Overy

Clifford Chance

DLA Piper

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Linklaters

Lovells

Simmons & Simmons

 

Commercial panel

Allen & Overy

Berwin Leighton Paisner

Bristows

Clifford Chance

DLA Piper

Latham & Watkins

Lovells  (n)

Millbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy

Pinsent Masons

Simmons & Simmons

 

Corporate recovery panel

Addleshaw Goddard (n)

Allen & Overy

Berwin Leighton Paisner (n)

Clifford Chance

Denton Wilde Sapte

Dickinson Dees

DLA Piper

Eversheds

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Hammonds

Lawrence Graham

Lovells

Matthew Arnold Baldwin

Osborne Clarke (n)

Pinsent Masons

Salans

Simmons & Simmons

TLT Solicitors

 

Employment/human resources panel

Addleshaw Goddard

Allen & Overy

Clifford Chance

Eversheds

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Lovells

MacFarlanes

Magrath & Co

Sullivan & Cromwell (n)

 

Barclays Private Equity panel

Infrastructure work

Addleshaw Goddard

Ashurst

Clifford Chance

DLA Piper

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

SJ Berwin

 

MBO work

Addleshaw Goddard

Clifford Chance

DLA Piper

Eversheds

Osborne Clarke

Pinsent Masons

Travers Smith

 

Securitisation panel

Allen & Overy

Clifford Chance

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Linklaters

Lovells

Sidley Austin

Weil Gotshal & Manges

 

Lending and finance panel

Addleshaw Goddard

Allen & Overy

Ashurst

Berwin Leighton Paisner

Birketts (n)

Blake Lapthorn (n)

Bond Pearce

Clifford Chance

CMS Cameron McKenna (n)

Cobbetts

Davenport Lyons

Denton Wilde Sapte

 

Litigation

Addleshaw Goddard (n)

Allen & Overy

Clifford Chance

DLA Piper

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Hammonds (n)

Hill Dickinson

Linklaters

Lovells

Matthew Arnold Baldwin

Simmons & Simmons

TLT Solicitors

 

Property management services

Addleshaw Goddard (n)

Denton Wilde Sapte

DLP Piper (n)

Nabarro (n)

 

Structuring panel

Allen & Overy

Clifford Chance

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Linklaters

Slaughter & May

 

Wealth products

Addleshaw Goddard

Berwin Leighton Paisner (n)

Burges Salmon

Charles Russell

Cobbetts (n)

Denton Wilde Sapte (n)

Field Seymour Parkes Solicitors

Irwin Mitchell

Lawrence Graham (n)

MacFarlanes

Maurice Turnor Gardner (n)

Norton Rose (n)

Optima Legal Services Limited