BLP makes bold stab at innovating for the LPO age with its £5m Thames Water deal

The news last week that Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) is to take on the bulk of Thames Water's in-house legal team caused a fair amount of attention across the City. Even for a firm like BLP, which has expanded aggressively in recent years, the creation of a managed legal service division to take over a client's in-house capabilities is a substantial bet on the way the market is moving, but one it has high hopes for.

On first glance there is much to commend the arrangement. BLP picked an obvious candidate to road-test the venture, choosing a regulated utility, which will provide stable work levels and incomes, making the project easier to manage.