A raft of City firms have won places on Societe Generale's (SocGen's) global legal panel, in a review that has seen Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, White & Case and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe lose out.

The bank has cut the number of global panel firms from nine to eight with Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker and Salans winning places on the roster. The process has also seen Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Gide Loyrette Nouel, Shearman & Sterling, Linklaters and Norton Rose re-appointed.

Separately, SocGen has also appointed Depardieu Brocas Maffei, Denton Wilde Sapte and Jones Day to sit on its French regional panel.

All of the appointments, effective from 1 January, will last for three years, taking them through to the end of 2011.

The bank is also in the process of reviewing its UK and US panels as well as a number of specialist panels, with group legal head Frederic de Brouwer in charge of the entire panel process.

De Brouwer told Legal Week that the three firms missing out on places on the global roster may still be awarded with positions on the remaining regional or specialist panels. He commented: "Partnerships with law firms must be win-win in order to last. I am happy to note that within the bank, awareness of the benefits of [our] policy on law firms has raised considerably over recent years. I am confident that the law
firms have seen their own benefits as well."

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