Osborne Clarke - LGPS National Procurement Framework for Legal Services

Osborne Clarke has been appointed to the new LGPS National Procurement Framework for Legal Services. 

Our appointment extends to all legal services for LGPS funds and employing authorities in England and Wales – this covers the full range of matters, including benefits and administration, outsourcing and admitted bodies, governance, disputes resolution and investments. In this update we provide a brief introduction to the new Framework, plus an introduction to Osborne Clarke and the services we offer. We hope you will find it interesting.

What is the new Framework?

The Framework has been set up so you can procure legal services matched to your own specific requirements: from small, one-off pieces of work to longer-term, single supplier arrangements. When doing so, you will benefit from pre-agreed terms and conditions and ceiling prices, along with a collaborative rebate. Building on the Hutton Report’s focus on the benefits of co-operative projects, the key aims are to increase choice, and to provide quick and efficient specialist legal advice, at a competitive rate. Osborne Clarke is fully committed to these aims.

Norfolk County Council’s procurement team is the main point of contact to find out more (email: nationalLGPSframeworks@norfolk.gov.uk). They can provide an introduction to the Framework and details of the joining instructions. 

Why Osborne Clarke?

Osborne Clarke is a major UK and international law firm, with a top-ranked pensions practice (“A fabulous firm stuffed with bright and efficient people” Chambers UK). If you don’t know us already, you can find out more by visiting our website at osborneclarke.com. 

As an example of our highly innovative and commercially relevant approach to law, please have a look at our recently issued report on ‘Smart cities in Europe: Enabling Innovation’. This focuses on how  the challenges cities face in becoming ‘smart’ can be overcome. As you’ll see, we are not an average law firm. 

Pensions Expertise

As regards our pensions expertise, our team of lawyers is nationally recognised for its strength and depth. The team currently provides legal advice to over 200 pension clients for schemes with assets ranging from £10s of millions to many £billions. Our LGPS clients represent a significant part of that practice. We have long advised LGPS funds – in particular, for many years we have been the sole legal advisers under a highly successful and pioneering framework agreement covering all LGPS funds in the south west. Our appointment to the new National Framework reinforces our credentials as a recognised legal adviser to LGPS clients, and allows us to extend the experience we have gained from the south west framework onto a national platform.

What value can we add?

Our LGPS advisory team has intimate knowledge of the LGPS regulatory environment and many years’ experience in handling LGPS matters. As is evidenced by our appointment to the new Framework, we can offer a dedicated team of LGPS experts offering well-resourced expertise at a competitive rate and it is our style of lawyering that sets us apart – we aim to deliver technical excellence in a timely, accessible and relevant format. The weight of change affecting the LGPS in recent years has placed the spotlight on managing legal risk, and with that in mind our approach is to give our clients the legal reassurance they need, whether making fine judgements on governance matters, providing a legal review of a major investment proposal or charting a path through a complex organisational change.

We highlight here 3 areas where we can offer particular expertise:

• Governance: With new pension boards on the horizon and far greater scrutiny of decision-making and governance issues generally, we have advised several of our LGPS clients on the implications. We combine close knowledge of the legislative and statutory guidance requirements, using an approach which looks for solutions, not problems, and which aims to reinforce existing good practice (rather than assuming that change and yet more complexity means good governance).
  This is a classic area where good judgement of the legal issues is at a premium, not simply a familiarity with the black letter law.
• Admission agreements: With the number of employers in the whole LGPS now approaching 9,000 in total, it is beyond doubt that funds have a huge task ensuring legal compliance and managing employer covenant and other risks. We can assist in the drafting and negotiation of admission agreements, bonds, guarantees and other legal documentation, whether that be for your fund’s smaller employers or those associated with major outsourcing projects and reorganisations.
  Recent work has included working on several significant TUPE transfer exercises and the associated issues relating to the admission of new employers and the protection of transferring members’ benefits, plus a major public sector reorganisation involving both the LGPS and other public service schemes (represented by central government departments). 
• Investments: We regularly review, comment on and negotiate the full range of financial transactions entered into by our LGPS clients. From fund reviews through to investment management agreements, structuring products and completing secondary transactions, our specialist funds team has significant, recent experience of acting for LGPS administering authorities.
  We pride ourselves on understanding the regulatory regime applicable to the LGPS and the financial services industry, the financial products themselves and offering a commercial and pragmatic approach. Our team trained at the largest City firms but are able to offer fee arrangements that represent good value for money, particularly given the financial significance of much of the work that we do.

We produce regular updates on LGPS, the fund management industry, governance, administration and other legal matters.  These will be particularly relevant to those responsible for LGPS investment matters, and can be subscribed to by clicking here.

Contacts

In short, we would love to introduce ourselves and what we can offer as legal advisers.

If you are interested in speaking to us about your legal services requirements, please do contact the head of our LGPS advisory team, Mark Womersley (tel: 0117 917 3542 or email: mark.womersley@osborneclarke.com). 

Equally, if you choose to join the National Framework, we would be delighted to be considered for any future legal procurement exercise you instigate in accordance with its terms, whether for your fund or the employing authority.