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.”
Mark Cook, Partner at Anthony Collins commented: "We are delighted that we have been selected to join EM Lawshare and are looking forward to working with the Partnership and contributing to the communities served by councils in the East Midlands and beyond. We believe that our intelligent, incisive and visionary approach will prove a great benefit, helping councils deliver effective and joined up solutions for their communities."