First Law

Cobbetts and Weightmans on combined council panel

Legal week - Thursday 5th October 2006

NOTE: This tender was managed by First Law

A consortium of four local authorities in the north have become the latest councils to drive down their legal spend by setting up a joint advisory panel.

Halton, Knowsley, Sefton and West Lancashire councils have combined to appoint Cobbetts, Weightmans and DLA Piper to a central panel that will advise on eight categories of work including employment, major IT and commercial contracts and civil litigation.

The councils have also appointed Brabners Chaffe Street, Stephensons, Mace & Jones, Forshaws and Addleshaw Goddard to advise in other areas. All the firms have been appointed for three-year terms with an option to renew for a further two years.

Sefton Council legal director Caroline Elwood commented: "We achieved greater purchasing power as a consortium and we are pleased with the rates."

The move marks the third time a group of local authorities have clubbed together in order to secure lower rates.

In January, the London boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets appointed a joint panel consisting of Mills & Reeve, Sharpe Pritchard and Trowers & Hamlins, while in April, 18 East Midlands councils formed a partnership with regional firms Ashfords, Browne Jacobson, Freeth Cartwright and Weightmans under the brand name EM Law Share.