20 February 2008
Six Councils Legal Consortium
In Autumn 2006 Sefton, Halton, Knowsley and West Lancashire were
pleased to announce that they had (after an extensive tendering
process) appointed a Main Partners Panel of Solicitors, with whom a
special relationship was to be developed, comprising Weightmans,
DLA Piper and Cobbetts. In addition, Specialist Panels were
created, for employment law - Brabners and Mace and Jones, for
civil litigation and prosecutions - Brabners and Stephensons, for
commercial and general conveyancing - Forshaws and Addleshaw
Goddard, and for social services and education work -
Stephensons.
The 4 Councils are now delighted to report that Warrington and
Wirral Councils have joined the arrangement under the title 'North
West Legal Consortium'.
These arrangements are designed to meet the 6 Councils' requirement
for Legal Services which are not currently able to be met either by
the capacity (including sickness absence, maternity leave or peaks
of work) or the expertise, of their in-house teams. Assistance
could be sought for legal work in any of the Councils' areas of
work. The appointed firms were to service each Council's legal
requirements on a call-off basis.
Caroline Ellwood, Legal Director at Sefton said "We achieved
greater purchasing power as a consortium and we are pleased with
the rates and discounts we secured and how the relationship is
working in practice."
Gill Rowe, Council Secretary and Solicitor at West Lancs said "This
was an exciting new initiative which has proved most successful to
date. The appointments are for three years from 2006 with an option
to renew for two years. The 6 Councils will now work together
innovatively and also continue to develop opportunities for joint
benefits with the 3 main partners.
These include:
· Skills transfer to and by staff
· Proposals for shared library facilities, IT systems etc
· Mutual secondment opportunities
· Training opportunities
· Shadowing and other development opportunities
· Use of and sharing of precedents."
Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, West Lancs, Wirral and Warrington will
continue to explore collaborative working opportunities between
their in-house teams to secure similar benefits to those arising
from their partnering arrangements with private sector firms.
Related information
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