Now it has been revealed that 18 firms have been appointed for two-year terms on the new panel for ‘general legal advice services’, with an estimated value of £400 million effective from the 28th February. Linklaters and PwC are new appointments to tier one, having not been on the previous panel, while Hogan Lovells has taken a new spot on tier two following the conclusion of the tender process which kicked off in March last year.

UK public sector bodies

UK public sector bodies that use the panel include the Bank of England, Competition and Markets Authority, NHS England and the security and intelligence services. The panel also covers services such as health, education, energy, and international trade.

Panel change

The previous panel, which ran from February 2013 until the end of January this year, was structured under eight so-called lots. Six of these lots have now been combined to form the new panel, with the remaining two – finance and regulation, and major projects – extended until 31st January 2018 and the existing firms reappointed. The way the newly combined panel split into two tiers works is that those in the first tier take priority over tier two firms which will handle work that tier one firms are unable to accept.

Winners

The 12 tier one firms are Pinsent Masons, Bond Dickinson, Linklaters, Dentons, DLA Piper, Burges Salmon, DAC Beachcroft, Eversheds Sutherland, Gowling WLG, Mills & Reeve, PwC and TLT. The six tier two firms are Fieldfisher, Hogan Lovells, Simmons & Simmons, Slaughter and May, Bevan Brittan and Browne Jacobson.