Clifford Chance (CC) has won a place on ITV's panel as the broadcaster renews its line-up for a three year term.

The magic circle firm joins existing panel firms Hogan Lovells, Slaughter and May, DLA Piper, Charles Russell Speechlys, Squire Patton Boggs, Olswang and Wiggin, all of which have retained their places.

The panel will run for three years and took effect from the beginning of 2016.

CC's appointment comes as ITV's increasing presence beyond the UK means group legal director Andrew Garard felt the company would benefit from the law firm's international network.

Ex-CC himself, Garard was also impressed with the firm's expertise on pension deficit funding schemes and treasury work.

He said: "I know their capabilities well but we never previously felt we could give them enough work to justify the demands we make of our panel firms.

"We view the panel process as an exercise in taking stock of what works well and what we can improve, both from our side and the panel firms'."

When Garard joined the broadcaster in 2007 he set about drastically reducing the panel of legal advisers it used, which at the time stood at around 50.

He also insisted panel firms moved away from the billable hour as well as meeting a number of corporate social responsibility, diversity and pro bono criteria.

ITV became the first in-house legal team to commit to the Rare Contextual Recruitment System last month (16 February).

The broadcaster will use Rare's system to recruit trainee lawyers for its Trailblazer Apprenticeship scheme, launched last December.

The company joins a raft of law firms using the scheme including the entire magic circle, Ashurst, Macfarlanes, RPC, Travers Smith, Baker & McKenzie and Withers.