ITV has held discussions with a number of major legal teams in a bid to get the in-house community working together to drive down legal costs and secure more favourable panel terms.

ITV group legal director Andrew Garard has held discussions with companies including Shell, JPMorgan and BT as well as other Fortune 500 companies, banks and public bodies after being approached to give advice on alternative billing arrangements.

The broadcaster has shared its standard procurement documents with several legal teams as part of discussions focused on how to reduce costs and increase the value of their legal providers.

The move follows an overhaul of ITV's panel in 2008 when it cut its advisers from almost 50 to nine and entirely phased out the billable hour.

In addition, ITV's director of legal affairs Barry Matthews has been briefing legal departments at companies including Nationwide, Lloyds, Deutsche Bank and Britvic on the company's pro bono processes after the firm last year tied its panel firms – which include Slaughter and May, Hogan Lovells and DLA Piper – into supplying a range of new training and pro bono initiatives such as secondments, training programmes and legal clinics.

The move is part of a drive by Garard to promote the acceptance of senior lawyers as business advisers. He commented: "From the wider perspective of the profession we have all got an interest in working together more effectively. In order to move forward we need to create a debate. This is about getting lawyers into the boardrooms as trusted advisers, and while the billable hour is still around I believe it is a real impediment."

Eversheds head of client services Kevin Doolan added: "The world has changed – GCs should be swapping ideas and experiences because as the whole profession moves into an alternative billing environment everyone, including law firms and clients, is learning how it can work best."