Veale Wasbrough Vizards (VWV), the Bristol and London-based law firm, has strengthened its position in the education and charities sector by becoming one of 13 firms selected by London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) to provide legal services to its members.
LUPC has an aggregated member non pay spend worth over £1 billion. This huge purchasing power enables the LUPC to continually negotiate very competitive supply agreements for goods and services on behalf of some of the most prestigious universities, colleges, libraries and museums based in and around London.
Its 60-plus member institutions include The London School of Economics and Political Science, the Royal College of Music and the British Museum.
The LUPC’s new framework for legal services is one of the largest in the public sector.
The move is a significant achievement for the firm, which has over recent years built a national reputation for its experience and expertise in the education, charity and public sectors.
It acts for more than 700 educational institutions including independent schools, nurseries, universities, academies, further education colleges, training colleges and examining boards.
It also works with a number of large and small charities and is on all the major public sector procurement panels.
VWV has formed a dedicated team led by partner Karen Stephenson to work with LUPC members. Karen, who heads the firm’s Higher Education team, has extensive senior management experience in the sector, having been University Secretary and Clerk to the Board of Governors at London South Bank University since 2001.
She has also been a senior lecturer and course director at the university. Karen said:
“The pressures on universities and charities are increasing all the time. We believe our appointment on the LUPC framework will provide its member institutions with an excellent, all-round legal service which will allow them to be more sharply focused on achieving their primary objectives.”
Simon Heald, VWV managing partner, added:
“Being chosen to work with such prestigious institutions as the LUPC’s members clearly demonstrates how far we have come as a firm in the key sectors of education and charities. We are now, deservedly, lined up with some very significant law firms on the LUPC’s framework.”
Firms on the framework will provide services in eight specialist areas – or lots – including employment, commercial, litigation and education and student matters. There is also a one-stop-shop lot which allows LUPC members to appoint one firm from that lot to provide all of their legal services.
The firms were chosen on price, technical requirements and their ‘unique selling points’.
LUPC director Andy Davies said:
“Our members identified legal services as a major area of spend with opportunities to add value and make significant cash savings.
“This result demonstrates the benefits that can be achieved through collaborative procurement and we look forward to working with the successful firms to deliver these benefits.”
For more information, please contact Karen Stephenson on 0117 314 5656.
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