50 local authorities cherry pick 5 law firms for 4-year legal panel
50 LOCAL AUTHORITIES CHERRY PICK 5 LAW FIRMS FOR 4-YEAR LEGAL PANEL
Five law firms have been selected to provide legal advice to 50 local authorities (including police and fire authorities) in the East Midlands under the EM LawShare consortium umbrella. Anthony Collins, Browne Jacobson, DLA Piper, Freeth Cartwright and Weightmans will offer legal advice on 13 different areas of law including contract, employment and corporate governance work.
The consortium was created in 2006 when 14 East Midlands councils joined forces to procure legal services in the first partnership agreement of its kind. It is now the biggest such consortium in the UK as Jayne Francis-Ward, Services Director of Legal and Democratic Services at Nottinghamshire County Council and leader of the EM LawShare consortium arrangement explained: “This is a unique initiative. Other local authorities have established legal panels but the uniqueness of EM LawShare is firstly its size, with 50 councils as members and most importantly its partnership working ethos. This isn’t simply a call off contract but a hugely successful example of a real public private partnership.”
The benefits for member councils include costs saving, shared training, cooperation between large and small councils and of course obtaining the best legal advice available.
Freeth Cartwright, Browne Jacobson and Weightmans had originally obtained a four year contract with the consortium in 2006 and they will now be joined by Anthony Collins and DLA Piper for a further four years, with Ashfords having been on the first panel but missing out this time.
Philippa Dempster, partner at Freeth Cartwright said: “The Consortium has been a great success and we are delighted and proud to be reappointed to help continue that success as EM Lawshare moves forward into its next phase.”
Stuart Leslie from Derby City Council believes that the East Midlands in particular benefits from this kind of arrangement: “Some areas within the East Midlands have seen a real period of regeneration in the past decade and through applying a partnership approach to furthering these developments, we hope to see the region progress in leaps and bounds. It would simply not be possible to achieve this kind of success without an initiative that allows us to spend our budget practically.”
ends - 4 February 2010
NOTES:
1. An essential part of the EM LawShare added value arrangements delivered by the Panel firms to the Consortium members is the annual training programme. During the first four years of the Framework Contract the Panel has provided over 100 bespoke four hour seminars for members of the Consortium on legal and soft skills subjects requested and selected by the Consortium members.
2. There are preliminary plans in place already to hold a major regional conference on local government legal services for the consortium members in autumn 2010 when learning and networking opportunities will be maximised. For example to help develop relationships between the consortium members and also the panel a “speed dating” type “getting to know you” session is planned.
3. In a typically ground-breaking initiative the Consortium has charged the firms with jointly delivering a new multi-functional EM LawShare website. This will ensure that consortium members are able to keep up to date upon local authority legal developments, EM LawShare bespoke events and share best practice and advice received under the Framework to make cost efficiencies.
4. The use and popularity of the Framework has increased substantially with members rising from 13 to 48 and this is reflected in legal spend under the Framework Contract which has increased from £504K in 2006/07, to £1.1M in 2007/08 and to £2M in 2008/09.