Baker & McKenzie has 
been selected as FTSE 250 telecoms company Colt's preferred legal adviser for commercial work following a three-month tender process involving more than 45 firms.

The appointment, which took effect earlier this month (1 January) and will run for an initial period of three years, will see Bakers providing all commercial, IT, telecommunications and regulatory advice to the company across Europe.

Slaughter and May and DLA Piper remain Colt's preferred advisers for corporate and litigation matters respectively. Meanwhile, Greenberg Traurig Maher won an exclusive mandate to provide employment advice to Colt last year.

As a part of the agreement, Bakers will work with Colt's in-house legal team of 35 lawyers working across the 13 European jurisdictions in which the company operates.

General counsel Robin Saphra said: "Baker & McKenzie demonstrated that it is able to meet our needs for commercial industry-aware legal advice across all our regions of operation and has developed an excellent engagement model to work with our in-house team."

Bakers telecommunications head Peter Strivens added: "Colt had a need for an external law firm that could provide excellent local advice in each of the jurisdictions in which it operates. We were able to offer that and combine this with a pan-European approach offering 
flexibility and value."

Legal Week reported in November that Saphra was leading a review expected to scale back the company's legal advisers, with the pitch request stating that preferred advisers should be able to provide advice across 
many of the jurisdictions in which it operates.

The tender process encouraged law firms to provide alternative billing arrangements as well as other value-added services such as secondments and in-house training. The company provides network and IT infrastructure as well as IT managed services.

Other firms to have worked with Colt in the past include Field Fisher Waterhouse.