Provident Financial in law firm clearout

Provident Financial, the door-to-door credit and insurance company, has ditched DLA, Hammonds, Masons and Pinsents following a review of its external lawyers.
The move follows a decision by the FTSE 100 company to set up a formal legal panel. Eversheds, which previously had no relationship with Provident Financial, has won a place on the new panel, along with existing advisers Slaughter and May, intellectual property specialists Willoughby & Partners and Bradford-based Last Cawthra Feather. The successful firms competed against four others to secure their places on the panel.
Provident Financial company secretary Ros Marshall Smith said the purpose of the review was to cut the number of external lawyers in order to get better value for money. She said Eversheds had been selected because she was very impressed with the firm's pitch and because of its presence in Leeds, which is near to the insurer's Bradford headquarters.
Eversheds consumer credit partner Jonathan Guest will manage the firm's relationship with Provident Financial. Andy Ryde, Shireen Peer Mohamed and Simon Stell are the relationship partners at Slaughters, Willoughbys and Last Cawthra respectively.
Provident Financial, which owns Yes Car Credit and Provident Insurance, the dedicated women's car insurance firm, serves 3.4 million customers throughout the UK and Central Europe through its home-collected credit, motor insurance and car finance operations. It employs 7,100 people.