press release
50 local authorities cherry pick five law firms for 4-year legal panel
3 February 2010
Five law firms have been selected to provide legal advice to 50
local 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 2005 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, Service 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.
Browne Jacobson, Weightmans and Freeth Cartwright 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.
Stuart Leslie from Derby City Council argued 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.”
Richard Barlow, Partner at Browne Jacobson added: “We are
delighted to have been reappointed to the panel and look forward to
continuing to strengthen this partnership."