Sainsbury's revamps legal roster with three firms winning places for first time

McGrigors is named as the supermarket giant’s counsel for Northern Irish-related matters for the first time, replacing L’Estrange & Brett, which the Edinburgh-headquartered firm took over in October 2009.

The employment lot has expanded beyond previous - and retained adviser - Croners, to include Bond Pearce, which has previously advised on regulatory maters, and new adviser to Sainsbury’s Michael Simkins.

DWF, which is also a new appointee, will assist on the newly created lot of civil recovery.

The full panel is: Addleshaw Goddard, Bond Pearce, Charles Russell, CMS Cameron McKenna, DWF, Croners, LG, McGrigors, Michael Simkins, Shepherd & Wedderburn, SNR Denton and Winckworth Sherwood. Linklaters also continues to advise on a number of matters.

Head of legal services Nick Grant said: “We’re delighted to reappoint a number of firms to our legal community who have worked hard to meet some significant cost challenges and have pledged to help us proactively and innovatively manage the use of external lawyers across the business.”

The review came after the expiry of the previous three-year term (21 January 2011) and the new panel will run until January 2014.

The 2011-14 panel in full: