Health procurement body names ten law firms to £40m legal services panel

The HealthTrust Europe group purchasing organisation for NHS bodies has appointed ten providers to its latest legal services framework, which is worth an estimated £40m.

The framework will be awarded for the period of three years, with the option to extend for one period of 12 months at HealthTrust Europe's discretion.

HealthTrust Europe said all awarded suppliers would be required to be able to cover all mandatory specialisms of law, namely:

(i) corporate governance;

(ii) healthcare inc. mental health law;

(iii) contract and commercial law;

(iv) employment, pensions and employee related tax law;

(v) property, estates energy and environmental law;

(vi) corporate finance and public private partnership law;

(vii) intellectual property, IT, telecoms, media and eCommerce law;

(viii) tax law;

(ix) information law, to include GDPR, data protection, FOIA, common law confidentiality.

There are, in addition, the following optional specialisms:

(i) mergers and acquisitions;

(ii) litigation, dispute resolution, arbitration and investigations.

The successful firms were:

• Bevan Brittan
• Browne Jacobson
• Capsticks
• Clyde and Co
• DAC Beachcroft
• Hempsons
• Hill Dickinson
• Kennedys Law
• Ward Hadaway
• Weightmans

The contract was awarded on the basis of quality (weighting: 70) and price (weighting: 30).

The latest arrangements replace those put in place in 2015 when three local authority legal teams – Kent Legal Services (now alternative business structure Invicta Law), Staffordshire Legal Services and nplaw – secured spots on panels with an estimated value of £30-90m.

In January this year HealthTrust Europe gave notice of its plans to set up a framework agreement for ‘alternative legal service providers’ providing services from entry level document review to highly skilled and experienced specialists.

A spokesperson for HealthTrust Europe said: “As a trusted partner for the NHS and commercial health and care providers, our focus is on delivering best value and ease of access to products and services. To that end we have published an improved framework, which is the result of feedback from providers and engagement with both incumbents and new suppliers at pre market stage.

“We look forward to working with the 10 suppliers and will also continue to encourage engagement from other legal services firms in the future.”