In June last year a meeting took place between Ben Heineman of General Electric (GE) and Bill Lytton of Tyco. The two general counsel heavyweights discussed, among other things, an innovative new approach to the management of law firms which GE was working on.

Three months later a letter was sent out to all of the law firms instructed by GE Commercial Finance, inviting them to participate in the online competitive bid-ding process for certain work.