Trio among seven firms to take spots on airline's new legal roster

Slaughter and May, Linklaters and Baker & McKenzie are among seven firms to have been appointed to British Airways' (BA's) new legal panel in its first review since its merger with Spanish airline Iberia last year.

The trio have won spots on the new line-up alongside Addleshaw Goddard, DLA Piper, Holman Fenwick Willan and Clifford Chance's (CC's) Madrid office.

The panel covers a number of areas including corporate, commercial and litigation, with Bakers, Addleshaws and DLA set to handle the bulk of BA's day-to-day work while CC will focus on competition issues.

It is understood that Taylor Wessing, Wragge & Co and Bristows have all previously carried out some off-panel work for BA in specialist areas such as technology, with these relationships set to continue post-review.

The review, which was completed earlier this year, was overseen by BA head of legal Andrew Fleming.

BA's tender document, which law firms submitted last autumn, is understood to have asked firms to provide details of alternative fee arrangements as well as secondees and in-house training they could provide to the airline.

While the Iberia merger served as a catalyst for the review, advisers to Iberia and the parent company of both airlines – International Consolidated Airlines Group  – will be reviewed separately at a later date, with the new panel line-up set to service only BA.

Slaughters took the lead role for BA on the Iberia merger, which went live in January last year, with Norton Rose and Garrigues advising the Spanish airline.

BA reshuffled its in-house legal team in the wake of the merger, with former BA general counsel Maria da Cunha appointed to the role of director of people, legal and government affairs, and Fleming, previously a senior commercial lawyer at BA, appointed as head of legal.