Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie and Norton Rose big winners
Royal Dutch Shell has cut its global panel from 11 firms to just six, as the company reorganises its legal arrangements following its merger with BG Group.
Newcomers to the panel are Eversheds and Reed Smith, while Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie and Norton Rose Fulbright have been reappointed.
The panel will run for a four-year term, although Shell said it expects to review its panel rates halfway through the term.
Dentons, Simmons & Simmons, CMS Cameron McKenna, Debevoise & Plimpton, Holman Fenwick Willan, King & Spalding and Linklaters are among former advisers not named on the oil giant’s reconfigured panel.
A spokesperson for Shell told Legal Business firms were chosen for their broad range of service and experience across sectors that were relevant to the company. Shell will still maintain ‘flexibility’ to use other firms, with the oil giant’s 980-strong legal team split over 45 countries and using over 100 firms.
The review comes after the company finalised its £47bn takeover of BG Group in February. Shell obtained 83% shareholder approval at a specially convened general meeting at The Hague in January after the deal received regulatory approval at the end of 2015. BG’s general counsel (GC) Tom Melbye Eide was appointed to the role of executive vice president and GC for the upstream business at Shell. He indicated to Legal Business that post-merger Shell’s legal panel would prevail over BG’s. Pre-merger, BG’s panel had comprised Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, CMS and Clifford Chance.
Shell legal director Donny Ching said: ‘The new firms bring with them a combination of strong legal experience and expertise, global reach, and flexibility with regards to cost arrangements that will help Shell achieve a higher standard of performance for our organisation, maintaining a strong and growing long-term position in the competitive environments in which we operate.’
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk