Higher education purchasing consortium appoints 17 firms to £30m legal services framework

The higher education legal framework will also be made available to the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium, the North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium, the Higher Education Purchasing Consortium Wales and the North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium.

The framework consists of the following four lots:

1. Commercial Services (Total value: £4m)
2. Dispute resolution (Including Student Matters) (Total value: £4m)
3. Human Resources (Including employment dispute resolution) (Total value: £4m)
4. One-stop shop (Total value: £18m)

The successful firms were:

• Addleshaw Goddard (Lot 4)
• Berrymans Lace Mawer (1 and 3)
• Bevan Brittan (4)
• Brodies (1, 2 and 3)
• Browne Jacobson (1, 2 and 3)
• Capital Law (1 and 2)
• Clyde & Co (2 and 3)
• DAC Beachcroft (2 and 3)
• Eversheds (4)
• Michelmores (1)
• Mills & Reeve (4)
• Muckle (2)
• Pinsent Masons (1 and 3)
• Shakespeare Martineau (4)
• Veale Wasbrough Vizards (4)
• Weightmans (4)
• Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) (4)

The award criteria for the lots were quality (weighting: 70) and price (weighting: 30).

Bettina Rigg, Head of Higher Education at Browne Jacobson, said: “We are delighted to have won a place on this prestigious panel for the first time, following a highly competitive tender process.

“The appointment endorses the strength of our legal expertise and knowledge across a number of key practice specialisms. It also builds on our portfolio of impressive clients in the higher and further education space and we look forward to working with members over the next three years and supporting them on the unique set of opportunities and challenges they face.”

Martin Vincent, a Partner at Weightmans, one of the firms appointed to Lot 4 of the framework, said: "Universities have faced unprecedented disruption in the last year and we have worked with establishments to help support them as they adapted to new working models and responded to a global crisis in innovative and effective ways.

Mr Vincent added: "We look forward to continuing to support members of the LUPC to ensure they can successfully embrace the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead."

The framework commenced in May 2021.

Adam Carey