Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Simmons & Simmons and Lewis Silkin have lost spots on an expanded Transport for London (TfL) legal panel, while the general counsel (GC) of mobile payment platform WorldRemit has left for a regtech start-up.
TfL has appointed 15 firms across eight areas – employment and industrial relations, major commercial, rail, routine commercial and real estate, housing, property and commercial development, highways and major consents, and planning – for a panel which will last four years from 1 June, with an option to extend for a further two years.
Addleshaw Goddard, Burges Salmon, DLA Piper, Stephenson Harwood, Pinsent Masons, Womble Bond Dickinson and BDB Pitmans all won new spots on the panel. The firms which retained places include Ashurst, Eversheds Sutherland, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Dentons, Herbert Smith Freehills, K&L Gates, Trowers & Hamlins and Gowling WLG.
It is TfL’s first panel review since 2012 and attracted applications from more than 100 firms. The previous arrangements consisted of 11 external advisers across six lots, and was extended by two years in mid-2016.
TfL director of legal Andrea Clarke commented: ‘The work that TfL’s legal department covers on a daily basis is extremely broad and varied, covering everything from developing and implementing major infrastructure projects, commercial property, employment law to resolving disputes. We are delighted to have appointed the new legal panel, and look forward to working with these firms to support delivery of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy.’
Elsewhere, Sam Ross has left WorldRemit, which he joined as its first in-house lawyer in 2016, for London-based financial crime business ComplyAdvantage. Ross, who featured in this year’s GC Powerlist, had built up the in-house legal team at WorldRemit, which was founded in 2010 and can send money to more than 140 countries, to seven people over the last three years.
WorldRemit had rapidly announced partnerships in recent months to expand its international footprint: in February 2019 the company struck a deal with Enat Bank to allow digital money transfers to Ethiopia and in January a similar partnership paved the way for transfers to Nepal. The legal team was vital to forming these pathways.
hamish.mcnicol@legalbusiness.co.uk
TfL’s new panel arrangements:
Lot 1 Employment
Eversheds Sutherland
Lot 2 Major Commercial
Addleshaw Goddard
Ashurst
Burges Salmon
Dentons
Eversheds Sutherland
Gowling WLG
Herbert Smith Freehills
K&L Gates
Lot 3 Rail
Addleshaw Goddard
Ashurst
Burges Salmon
Stephenson Harwood
Lot 4 Routine Commercial and Real Estate
Addleshaw Goddard
Eversheds Sutherland
Gowling WLG
Lot 5 Housing
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
Pinsent Masons
Towers & Hamlins
Lot 6 Property and Commercial Development
Ashurst
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
Burges Salmon
Dentons
Eversheds Sutherland
Gowling WLG
Herbert Smith Freehills
Womble Bond Dickinson
Lot 7 Highways and Major Consents
BDB Pitmans
DLA Piper
Eversheds Sutherland
Gowling WLG
Pinsent Masons
Lot 8 Planning
Burges Salmon
Gowling WLG
Herbert Smith Freehills
Pinsent Masons
