EM Lawshare fires gun on procurement of £1.2bn legal services framework

West Northamptonshire Council is acting as lead authority for the procurement, which is being conducted in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023 and is being conducted through the Competitive Flexible procedure to identify the potential suppliers for the requirement.  It is a ‘Light Touch’ procurement. 

Contracting authorities will be required to be members of the consortium in order to use the new framework agreement.

There are just over 240 contracting authorities signed up as members of EM Lawshare to use the existing framework agreement.

More than four in five (82%) of these are local authorities and parish councils located in England and the remaining 18% is made up of wholly owned local authority subsidiary companies, blue light services, park authorities, combined authorities, NHS bodies,  police and crime commissioners, universities and colleges.

EM Lawshare noted that the range of its users has spread geographically so it now extends country wide and includes some of the largest local authorities in the country such as: Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Nottingham and Sheffield City councils and Cornwall, Kent, Somerset, Derbyshire, Oxfordshire and North Yorkshire councils. 

It added that it has now formalised its consortium arrangements in the form of a new consortium agreement intended to strengthen its governance arrangements in anticipation of this tender for a new framework.

All contracting authorities (as defined in the Procurement Act 2023) in England & Wales will be eligible to join the consortium, either before or during the term of the new framework agreement, to have access to use the framework.

Contracting authorities that are not local authorities require approval of the Consortium Board to join, whereas local authorities do not.  

EM Lawshare said services delivered under the new framework will sit under ten areas of work. “These include every major category of work dealt with by local authorities other than child care work…..The framework agreement will not be split into lots as the appointed firms are required to be able to respond to requirements across all of the ten areas of work.”

The framework agreement will have 10 private law firms appointed to it, the same number as the existing framework. The current partner firms are: Anthony Collins; Bevan Brittan; Browne Jacobson; Capsticks; DWF; Freeths; Geldards; Sharpe Pritchard; Trowers & Hamlins; and Weightmans.

The tender return date is midday on Monday, 19 October 2026.

The contract is due to start on 1 April 2027  and run until 31 March 2031. There will be an option to extend for a further two individual periods of 1 year.  

The award criteria are quality (weighting: 50%) and price (weighting: 50%).