RM review two of its legal panels.

[POSTMAN]

Royal Mail is in the final stages of reviewing two of its legal panels after overhauling the structure of its adviser roster.

The state-owned postal company is in the process of shortlisting firms for its employment and personal injury panels and will announce the results at the end of March.

The reviews, which were last held three years ago, were formerly run on a regional basis with Eversheds and Weightmans retaining their places as advisers for the Midlands and the northwest. Hammonds was reappointed as adviser for the northeast region and was named as the company’s first London adviser.

Under the new regime, the personal injury panel will be purely national, while the employment tribunal panel will consist of advisers for each region. Royal Mail also has a property conveyancing panel, which will be reviewed next year.

A spokesperson said he expected these contracts to run for just two years. In previous panel exercises appointments ran for three years.

General counsel Doug Evans — who joined the company last August from Exel after six years at the logistics company — has been leading the process. He replaced outgoing head of legal services Catherine Churchard, who retired at the end of last year.

Royal Mail has annual revenues of £8bn and around 195,000 staff, including an in-house legal team of 35
lawyers.


LEGAL STUFF