Council to scrap law firm panel in favour of £17.5m deal with single provider

December 13, 2016

The London Borough of Croydon has unveiled plans to appoint a single, strategic partner to a £17.5m contract for the provision of legal services over seven years.

The local authority currently operates a panel of law firms, having selected ten providers in 2011 for a £18m framework agreement. This arrangement expires at the end of March 2017.

The council said the proposed contract would cover legal services within four core categories:

Property (residential and non-residential), including planning matters;
Commercial;
Litigation (civil); and
Employment (contentious and non-contentious).

The contract, which is due to begin on 1 January 2018, is expected to be for five years although Croydon said it anticipated having the option at its absolute discretion to extend the term for up to a further two periods of one year each.

The anticipated maximum value of the contract is currently expected to be up to £2.5m per annum, net of VAT.

The contract is to be awarded on the basis of quality (weighting: 60%) and price (weighting: 40%).

The procurement of the contract is subject to the ‘light touch’ regime under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended), but following a procedure analogous to the competitive dialogue procedure.

Those who will be invited to participate in the competitive dialogue will be the six potential suppliers whose SQ (selection questionnaire) scores are the highest.

Croydon added that it considered that the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) (as amended, re-enacted or consolidated) may apply to this contract.

The ten firms appointed in 2011 were: