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Shoosmiths secures Consortium of London panel place

08 June 2010

Shoosmiths has been selected to provide legal services to the new Consortium of London, which comprises 14 local authorities in and around the capital.

The national law firm is on a panel that will advise the consortium on a wide range of day-to-day and complex matters, and which will help the local authorities cut their legal costs.

Shoosmiths’ team features specialists in property, contracts, housing, litigation, planning and the environment, commercial matters; and issues including health and safety, licensing, and data protection.

They will advise the member councils – Barnet, Bexley, Bromley, City of London, Dartford, Havering, Hillingdon, Maidstone, Merton, Redbridge, Sutton, Swale, Thanet and Tunbridge Wells – under a framework agreement, operating in conjunction with each of the councils’ in-house legal advisers.

The framework agreement is for four years, with one or more of the member councils having the option to extend that by up to three years.

The consortium was formed to enable the local authorities to exercise buying power and secure ‘value for money’ legal services

Client relationship partner Iain Gilbey said: “We were able to pull together a very strong team to help win this work, and that team will now go on and provide the very best advice with precisely to sort of added value and cost effectiveness the consortium wants.

“In light of public sector spending cuts, local authorities are looking to drive down legal costs, establish economies of scale, benefit from the efficiencies that collaboration brings, and promote the transfer of skills and knowledge.” 

Mark Bowen, director of legal, democratic and customer services at the London Borough of Bromley, said: “We were delighted with the interest from law firms in participating in the consortium arrangements and we consider we have secured a panel of the highest quality.

“We are confident it will not only deliver excellent and cost effective legal work across the range of functions carried out by participating councils, but also added value benefits around training and resource sharing.”

For further information please contact:
Name: Alastair Gray
Phone: 03700 864096
Email: Alastair.Gray@shoosmiths.co.uk

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