Lombard International

Global wealth solutions provider Lombard International has invited 11 firms to tender for its first-ever global legal panel.

Linklaters, Eversheds, DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells, CMS, Baker McKenzie, Sidley Austin, Latham & Watkins, Allen & Overy, Morgan Lewis, and Norton Rose Fulbright will pitch for between four and five places, according to Lombard's group general counsel and company secretary Monica Risam.

The panel is expected to run for three years and be finalised in January 2020.

Risam said she hoped to "leverage the expertise" she gained in leading a legal panel initiative at her previous role as general counsel of Aviva U.K. Life, to create Lombard's inaugural roster of firms.

She added that following the selection of the firms to make up the first panel – which will be evaluated based on their proficiency in innovation and diversity and inclusion – Lombard will begin a second tender process to find more firms with a greater focus in the company's 20 key geographical markets.

The second process is expected to wrap up by the end of the first quarter of 2020, Risam said.

In terms of diversity and inclusion, Risam said her experience as a woman of Indian heritage has encouraged her to "challenge the firms to show us their sensitivities" to the area, noting that in previous discussions with several Magic Circle firms, "it was interesting to see that firms didn't think they needed to bring forward a diverse group of people".

The areas of legal advice the panel will cover includes insurance and regulatory, M&A, corporate, tax, commercial and outsourcing, litigation, data protection, employment, trademarks, and media.

Risam had spent nearly a decade at Aviva before joining Lombard in early 2018. She also held general counsel roles at GE Capital, having joined the company from Weil Gotshal & Manges in 2004, where she had been an associate.