GE to ditch e-tendering to 'deepen relationships' in Euro panel review
General Electric (GE) is turning its back on its controversial online auction tender process as it embarks upon a review of its European advisers. GE, one of the world's biggest companies, has launched a review of its European legal panel and hopes to complete the process by the end of the summer. But the company will not be using the innovative eBay-style auction method in which firms attempt to outbid each other by lowering fee rates in real time to secure panel work.
February 14, 2007 at 10:29 PM
2 minute read
General Electric (GE) is turning its back on its controversial online auction tender process as it embarks upon a review of its European advisers.
GE, one of the world's biggest companies, has launched a review of its European legal panel and hopes to complete the process by the end of the summer. But the company will not be using the innovative eBay-style auction method in which firms attempt to outbid each other by lowering fee rates in real time to secure panel work.
GE European general counsel Mark Elborne told Legal Week: "We are not proposing to use the e-tendering process at this point as we are looking to broaden and deepen our relationships with the firms we work with."
He added that the review would cover its commercial finance, consumer finance and insurance businesses.
GE implemented the internet auction process for its US panel review in 2003 and brought the regime over for its review of UK legal advisers in 2004.
The auction rooms were greeted with dismay by City firms when they were introduced in the UK, with advisers arguing that the value of top-end legal advice could not be calculated by such a process.
Thirty-seven firms made it on to GE's UK roster in 2004 including Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slaughter and May, Norton Rose and CMS Cameron McKenna.
Elborne joined the European arm of the company as its new head of legal last May from GE Insurance in Kansas.
GE also recently set up its first-ever cross-business M&A panel in an effort to locate firms which could provide M&A expertise to the company's businesses across Europe.
The company's global legal department comprises more than 1,000 lawyers worldwide and has an estimated UK legal spend of £30m.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
Shein GC's Responses to Supply Chain Questions 'Bordered on Contempt', Say Lawmakers
Broadcom Hires From Nuclear Giant to Appoint French Legal Head
GCs Say They are Getting 'Edged Out' of UK Boardrooms
Trending Stories
- 1Courts, Lawyers Press On With Business as SoCal Wildfires Rage
- 2Florida, a Political Epicenter, Is the Site of Brownstein Hyatt's 13th Office
- 3Law Firms Close Southern California Offices Amid Devastating Wildfires
- 4Lawsuit alleges racial and gender discrimination led to an Air Force contractor's death at California airfield
- 5Holland & Knight Picks Up 8 Private Wealth Lawyers in Los Angeles
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
