CMS has dropped off Lloyds Banking Group’s core panel of advisers after a review which reshaped the roster into two lots.
A total of 25 firms are understood to have been appointed, split between a smaller number of core firms and a group of general firms. It was the bank’s first panel review since 2016, when DLA Piper and Norton Rose Fulbright lost their spots as the core panel shrunk from ten to eight firms. Continue reading “In-house: CMS bumped as core adviser following Lloyds panel review”
Major companies are pressing external counsel to pay to compete for adviser spots in a move set to be resisted by some major law firms. The practice sees law firms paying to be ‘validated’ by a procurement company, effectively pushing the cost of the agency onto the pitching law firms. One prominent case has been National Grid’s ongoing panel review. Santander has also used a comparable model on a recent pitch.
The National Grid panel review, covering a range of work understood to be worth about £12m a year in the UK alone, began six months ago and is due to be finalised at the end of November. Six to ten spots are available on its roster, which is being reduced from 12 advisers. Continue reading “Pay to play – Bluechip clients force law firms to pay to pitch as GCs flex buying power”
Pinsent Masons has regained its spot on Siemens’ UK panel in favour of Osborne Clarke after the conglomerate’s latest legal adviser review.
Undertaken by Simone Davina, Siemens’ UK and Ireland general counsel (GC), Pinsents joins Addleshaw Goddard and Eversheds Sutherland who have both been reappointed advisers for another three years.
Continue reading “In-house: Pinsents replaces Osborne Clarke spot on Siemens UK panel”
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Hogan Lovells are among 11 firms to have secured spots on WeWork’s first legal panel for the EMEA region, running for an initial two years.
The firms join Addleshaw Goddard, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Bird & Bird, CMS Cameron Mckenna Nabarro Olswang, DLA Piper, Eversheds Sutherland, McCann Fitzgerald, Shoosmiths and Simmons & Simmons. Continue reading “In-house: Eleven firms get workspace on WeWork’s debut EMEA legal panel”
Ten firms have secured spots on FTSE 100 insurer Aviva’s refreshed legal panel, with RPC, Eversheds Sutherland and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner winning new appointments.
The two-lot panel covering the group and investor businesses came into effect on 1 July after the previous panel, last reviewed in 2013, ran its course. It will run on an initial three-year term. Continue reading “In-house: Aviva reveals new adviser panel after first review since 2013”
DWF has landed its first major post-IPO client win after securing a five-year managed legal services mandate for BT’s insurance and real estate work.
Up to 40 lawyers from BT’s in-house legal team of nearly 400 staff could transfer from BT to DWF by the end of this year as part of the deal, which saw DWF chosen ahead of 25 other providers following a year-long process. Continue reading “‘An incredible opportunity’: DWF flexes New Law arm with BT managed services contract”
Severn Trent group general counsel (GC) Bronagh Kennedy (pictured) is keeping an open mind as to how many firms will be appointed to its £8m legal panel, with Eversheds Sutherland currently the company’s sole adviser.
The FTSE 100 water company has opened a tender process for the legal panel it last reviewed in 2015, when Eversheds extended the sole-adviser mandate it has held since 2010. The existing panel covers five lots but the new panel will be divided into three, covering all the companies in the Severn Trent Group. Continue reading “In-house: Severn Trent open to extending panel beyond Eversheds’ sole-adviser role”
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Simmons & Simmons and Lewis Silkin have lost spots on an expanded Transport for London (TfL) legal panel, while the general counsel (GC) of mobile payment platform WorldRemit has left for a regtech start-up.
TfL has appointed 15 firms across eight areas – employment and industrial relations, major commercial, rail, routine commercial and real estate, housing, property and commercial development, highways and major consents, and planning – for a panel which will last four years from 1 June, with an option to extend for a further two years. Continue reading “In-house: TfL stations enlarged panel roster as WorldRemit GC exits for regtech start-up”
Legal spend is the second-largest ‘cost centre’ for £21bn global banking giant Barclays. This tantalising statement is in the bank’s 2018 Request for Quotation document, sent to law firms ahead of its final panel review this year and seen by Legal Business. The document provides detail on what Barclays describes as this ‘sizeable’ legal spend.
In the 18 months to January this year, for instance, around 35% of its legal budget was spent internally in running an in-house legal department that dwarfs many major law firms at more than 750 staff. The rest was spent externally, about half in the Americas and just over a third in the UK. Continue reading “Point break – The extreme measures of Barclays’ adviser review”
The need for a more ‘nimble and agile’ environment is driving the Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) foray into the flexible lawyers market, reducing a dependence on the need for secondees from external firms.
RBS general counsel (GC) Michael Shaw (pictured) confirmed the bank has gone out to a number of flexible resourcing providers with an eye to setting up its first-ever panel in the area later this year. Continue reading “In-house: RBS to tackle peaks and troughs with flexible legal providers”
