After much speculation, a raft of firms including Clifford Chance, Ashurst, Eversheds, Mayer Brown, Reed Smith, Simmons & Simmons, Hogan Lovells, Pinsent Masons, DWF and Bond Dickinson have won places on banking giant Barclays’ reduced legal roster, however DLA Piper has lost its spot following the global panel review.
The bank started informing all law firms they were on the panel last week, with a deadline to inform everyone by the end of Monday (27 June). The current panel ran from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2016.
It is believed that the total number on the bank’s roster is around a third of the previous total of 350 – 400 firms. The review was led by Stéphanie Hamon, the bank’s head of commercial management who joined the bank in December from King & Wood Mallesons.
A DLA spokesperson said: ‘The firm has enjoyed a strong working relationship with Barclays for a number of years, across a wide range of legal services. We are disappointed that we have not been appointed to their panel, but look forward to working with them again in the future.’
It is understood Clifford Chance’s role since the last panel review has been reduced. The Magic Circle firm refused to comment.
According to one law firm partner the key themes of the panel review were ‘delivering excellence, thought leadership, collaboration, team work and value for money.’
The bank also asked some firms to price work according to a different rates for strategic work, medium and flow, covering everything from high end mandates to process driven work.
In its last panel review Barclays cut its legal roster by around 30% and moved to a streamlined two-tier system of ‘preferred’ and ‘approved’ firms in a move which general counsel Bob Hoyt said was to ‘provide the broad range of expertise and in-depth knowledge of Barclays required to support our business lines globally.’
There was a more even split between US and UK firms, which was said to better reflect Barclays’ current business and legal spend. The bank selected five US firms: Boies, Schiller & Flexner; Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; Davis Polk & Wardwell; Latham & Watkins; and Skadden Arps, Meagher & Flom with whom it seeked to ‘deepen its relationship and concentrate spend over time.’
Last month Legal Business revealed that the bank was planning to extend the value account system it introduced in 2014, where law firms are required to pay a rebate if they fail to hit their value targets, to all external advisers.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk
Additional reporting by Madeleine Farman, Tom Moore, Matthew Field and Sarah Downey.
