If you are a lawyer employed by Whitehall, instructing a solicitor is never just a simple case of picking up the phone. As of just over a year ago, procurement – the current Government’s cause celebre – extended its thrifty grasp to legal services.
Following in the wake of a review of how IT facilities, utilities and general support arrangements are purchased – declarations celebrating sustainable procurement, green procurement, best practice and value for money litter government websites – the long march towards perfect procurement has taken a look at how much money is spent on legal fees. Consequently, the Legal Category, or L-Cat, panel was launched by the Office for Government Commerce (OGC) in March last year to streamline central government’s legal spend.
