London Boroughs Legal Alliance to procure £6.3m legal services panels

The London Boroughs Legal Alliance (LBLA) has kicked off the procurement of two panels worth an estimated £6.3m for full service legal advice and regeneration.

The framework agreement will run for a period of three years with an option to extend for a further year. It will be open for use by LBLA members and local authorities in Greater London and South-East England.

The full service panel – worth £3.3m – will cover:

1. Litigation (including housing, employment, general civil including complex debt collection, construction).
2. Commercial (including contracts, EU procurement and general procurement, PPP/PFI, education projects).
3. Property (including general planning, highway agreements, landlord and tenant including housing, compulsory purchase orders, sales and leasehold, small scale development projects).
4. Other miscellaneous local government work (including freedom of information law, data protection and governance, licensing, pensions and elections)

The panel for regeneration-related work – worth £3m – will cover areas such as: development agreements; joint ventures; large scale portfolio work; mixed use development; construction and regeneration; public procurement advice and tendering (including competitive dialogue); planning inquiries; complex planning agreements; site assembly; review of construction contract terms and conditions; review of warranties to sub-contractors and sub-consultants; agreement of contract terms and conditions for construction contracts with any successful contractor; environmental matters; related state aid; and any dispute or litigation closely connected with a regeneration project.

The award criteria in both cases will be service delivery (weighting: 45%), value-added benefits and social value benefits (weighting: 5%) and price (weighting 50%).

For both lots there will be a maximum of eight suppliers.

The LBLA comprises the London Boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Camden, Ealing, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Newham, Redbridge, Waltham Forest, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the City of London Corporation, Westminster City Council and the London Fire and Planning Authority.

The London Borough of Hackney is acting as the central purchasing body and Kennedy Cater is acting as the advisers on behalf of the LBLA.

In November 2013 the LBLA appointed seven firms across two similar lots. The chosen providers for lot 1 (regeneration) were: Ashfords; Bevan Brittan; Freeths; Sharpe Pritchard; and TLT. Those selected for lot 2 (full service) were: Ashfords; Michelmores; Pinsent Masons; Sharpe Pritchard; and TLT.