The NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) has unveiled a roster of firms for its £544m legal advice panel, with Fieldfisher, Clyde & Co, DAC Beachcroft and Bevan Brittan among those making the cut. Meanwhile, Berrymans Lace Mawer has missed out.
Legal Business revealed in February that the NHSLA was reviewing its panel, with firms being invited to pitch for three sub-panels: clinical liability, non-clinical liability and regulatory, health and disciplinary. The process was overseen by the NHSLA’s director of claims Alan Hunter.
A group of firms have been appointed to offer advice for all three panels, these are Browne Jacobson, DAC Beachcroft, Kennedys and Weightmans.
Firms also on the clinical panel are Bevan Brittan, Capsticks, Hempsons, Hill Dickinson and Ward Hadaway. The non-clinical panel is made up of the four firms who are on all the panels and Clyde & Co, while Blake Morgan, Fieldfisher and Mills & Reeve have also been appointed to the regulatory panel.
The clinical liabilities panel is worth an estimated £480m over four years while the non-clinical liability panel and the RHD panels are worth £32m over the four years. Places available on the clinical and non-clinical panels have decreased since 2013, where there were 11 and six slots available respectively.
This latest panel follows the tender process launched by NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) earlier this month. The panel, which is worth £20m, is due to be finalised in August this year.
In January 2017, the Department of Health began a separate tendering process to form a £6m panel of law firms to pursue litigation against companies in the pharmaceutical industry. The decision followed the £84.2m fine handed down by the Competition and Markets Authority to US-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer after it drastically elevated the prices of anti-epilepsy drugs.
tom.baker@legalease.co.uk
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