Lovells, BLG miss out on ACE panel places
ACE European Group, the European arm of one of the world’s largest insurers, has overlooked former favourite Lovells on its first formal legal panel.
The company has instead selected Clyde & Co, the CMS network, Holman Fenwick Willan, Mayer Brown and Norton Rose as its European advisers.
Lovells has a relationship with ACE going back to the 1980s and has maintained close links with the insurance group. In 2005 ACE called on Lovells when it moved its headquarters from Brussels to London.
But a source at the firm said the amount of work coming from the company has been diminishing for several years.
Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG), which has also worked with ACE in the past, was also left out in the cold.
The panel place is a significant win for CMS’s European alliance, which pitched as a single unit rather than as nine separate firms. The network will be given sole responsibility for ACE’s real estate work and will also work on employment.
ACE general counsel Kenneth Underhill, who left Reynolds Porter Chamberlain to take over the role in October 2007, said: “We’re pleased with all our panel firms and look forward to working with them going forward. CMS especially impressed us with its extensive European presence.”
Clydes ;has ;been ;an adviser for several years, while Norton Rose – a more recent addition – has been instructed on regulatory and corporate matters.
