The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has launched a review of its £200m public sector legal services panel. The current panel is made up of 69 firms, divided into six lots: regional service provision; full service firms – England & Wales; full service firms – Scotland; full service firms – Northern Ireland; property & construction; transport […]
The London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) has concluded its £30m panel review with 17 firms scoring a place. .The latest panel, which was launched in August 2020, sees seven additional firms appointed following the LUPC’s last review in 2017. Firms to have won a place include Addleshaw Goddard, BLM, DAC Beachcroft and Pinsent Masons while […]
The Metropolitan Police Service has assembled its new £65m panel, a year and a half after the review kicked off. Though the Met initially said it was looking for up to 15 firms, nine have scored a place including new appointments DAC Beachcroft, DWF and Blake Morgan. The other firms are: Capsticks, Gowling WLG, Michelmores, […]
Clarion Housing Group is seeking firms for a new £40m panel, which will span the course of a decade. Clarion is the largest social housing group in the UK with 350,000 residents living in its homes. It is also a member of the G15 group of London’s biggest landlords. The selected firms will provide legal […]
Firms pitching for places on the UK Government’s legal panels are weighing up their options around charge-out fees, amid concerns over how much they may be expected to discount. With a late June deadline looming large for firms wishing to apply to the general legal advice and finance and complex legal services panels, sources told The […]
Gone are the days of the star M&A partners, as firms strive to eliminate favouritism and promote talent. A rundown of the top UK deals this year – and the teams leading them – suggests their strategy may be working.
Shilpa Bhandarkar is on a mission to create the right conditions for tech to flourish at every level of the firm and to meet the needs of clients
by Adele Baxby Meehan At the recent Lawyer Marketing Leadership Summit, a theme which reared his head time and time again was the desire from both GCs and other clients for lawyers to show their human side. The pandemic has highlighted the need for a more human touch and many, sick to the back teeth […]
Why is a lawyer like a dentist? It’s not a trick question – both are professions where, in order to be successful, emotional intelligence is vital. A patient in need of root canal treatment will favour the dentist that welcomes them into the surgery and ensures they feel relaxed while the painful problem is treated. […]
Client solutions to the fore as digital transformation picks up pace
How a legal team took on the might of the Post Office to put right one of the biggest miscarriages of justice the UK has ever seen
In late 2019, Linklaters’ global head of banking Davide Mencacci left his base in Hong Kong to visit the London headquarters of the firm. It was a standard trip for a practice leader; catching up with fellow partners, updating management and shaking hands with clients. All seemed normal, but there was something brewing. Just a […]
Greek mythology, the Bible and Shakespeare all make much of the sins of the father being visited on the child. However, for parent companies at least, that may no longer be the case following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Okpabi v Royal Dutch Shell. At The Lawyer’s latest roundtable, Stephenson Harwood partners Ed Davis […]
Set-up aims to break down remaining boundaries of geography for a round-the-clock service delivered by more than 350 people globally
Linklaters has grossed over £3m as part of a railway contract with the UK Government’s Department for Transport, the latest mandate to be won by the magic circle firm. The magic circle firm provided advice on the UK Government’s £7.5bn Intercity Express Programme, a project that began in 2017. The paperwork, signed four years ago, was […]
Historic England is looking to shrink its panel down to four firms as part of its latest review. The public body, which cares for England’s historic environment is sourcing, ideally, a maximum of four firms for its new £2m panel. In 2017, Historic England tripled the size of its panel to ten firms including Womble Bond […]
Dentons has won two lucrative UK Government mandates whose combined value is worth around £9.5m. The contracts relate to two different mandates for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and HM Treasury. However, they stem from Dentons’ role within the Government’s wider Finance and Complex Legal Services (FaCLS) panel. The HM Treasury […]
The hourly rates of a Slaughter and May team involved in a multi-million-pound UK Government mandate were disclosed in public records released earlier this week. The firm won a contract worth £3.9m to provide legal advice and support services to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government around a project to help homeowners who […]
The UK Government’s Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is consolidating two of its panels, which is expected to result in cuts. Under the new framework, the General Legal Advice Services (GLAS) and Finance and Complex Legal Services (FaCLS) panels have been brought together. The CCS says that though the procurement activity for two panels is combined, […]
Housing developer A2Dominion has assembled its first legal panel with seven firms scoring a place. The panel is divided into seven lots made up of: corporate governance; housing management; general property; development reconstruction and regeneration; treasury and finance; employment; procurement, data protection, health and safety. Devonshires has been appointed to all seven lots, Capsticks to […]
Linklaters has hired Jonathan Jones QC, the former Treasury Solicitor and head of the UK Government Legal Department (GLD), months after he decided to leave his post. Jones’ departure was revealed last August as the UK Government faced scrutiny over its plans to clarify parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, which formed a section of […]
The UK Government Legal Department (GLD) has appointed its next Treasury Solicitor, after Jonathan Jones QC abruptly left the division last year. The department will now be led by Susanna McGibbon, who has been the GLD’s director general for more than two years. She has been named today as Treasury Solicitor, Her Majesty’s procurator general […]
The Government Legal Department (GLD) spent almost £20m on external law firms and counsel in the second half of the year, The Lawyer can reveal. In a Freedom of Information request, the GLD confirmed that it spent £17.02m on legal spend between May 2020 and December 2020, with a large proportion of its legal spending […]
The Metropolitan Police Service has asked firms to sign up to an extension of its panel, giving it more time to conclude its review of the roster. The Met’s current framework expires on 31 January, however firms will have their current contracts extended till April. The Met said that this is to allow it to […]
Slaughter and May advised the Department for Transport on a £600,000 mandate around a financial package to protect freight routes during the Covid-19 pandemic, building on a string of profitable public work mandates. A response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed that the firm advised on a £35m financial aid package approved by […]
Scottish Water is seeking to update its legal panel, six years after putting together its last roster of law firms. The publically-owned water and waste water company had reappointed DLA Piper and CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang in 2015, alongside BLM. Scottish firm Anderson Strathern won a spot on the panel for the first time, […]
