The Post Office has invited law firms to tender for its new £39m legal services panel, with up to 14 successful applicants set to be appointed for six-year terms beginning next year.
The government-owned company, which split from Royal Mail in 2012, will appoint firms to two lots with a combined value of £39 million.
Lot one, which is valued at £24m, will feature a maximum of five firms, which will handle strategic work across all Post Office practice areas and all UK jurisdictions. According to the tender document, the work is likely to be highly complex and high value, including strategic corporate work.
Meanwhile, up to nine firms will be appointed to lot two, which is valued at £15m, and will involve general legal work across all of the Post Office's practice areas and across all UK jurisdictions, including some volume work.
Successful firms for both lots will be appointed for a six-year term from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2025, with two options to extend for 12 months.
The deadline for receipt of tenders or requests to participate is 5 November this year.
The Post Office's general counsel is Jane MacLeod, who has held the role since joining in January 2015. She was also appointed as company secretary in September last year, and works alongside group legal director Ben Foat.
Law firms to have worked with the Post Office in the past include Womble Bond Dickinson, which advised on its successful bid for a government-wide framework services agreement with an estimated value of up to £1.5bn, CMS,Hogan Lovells and DAC Beachcroft.
Royal Mail, which went public in 2013, also works with CMS and DAC Beachcroft, which sit on a 13-firm panel with Addleshaw Goddard, Ashurst, Bristows, DLA Piper, Dentons, Herbert Smith Freehills, Macfarlanes, Michael Simkins, Slaughter and May, Strata Solicitors and Weightmans.
Picture credit: Julian Burgess