Global pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline garnered much legal sector attention when its in-house legal department launched an innovative on-line ‘bidding room’ mechanism for beauty-parading external law firms. The company’s general counsel, Dan Troy, acknowledged to The Post that initially law firms ‘don’t love it as a process, but they recognise it as the way of the future’. Commented the GSK lawyer: ‘Initially there was some shock, but then they got used to it. There have been individual matters where firms will decline even to pitch, but in general, we’ve had all the best firms participating at some stage. In my view, I’d rather go through the OCSI process than have to negotiate rates separately – at least this way it is fair.’ While most of Mr Troy’s multi-national corporate counsel counterparts haven’t even considered the idea, those who have a fairly evenly split in opinion.
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