Ten firms have been appointed to U.K. rail operator High Speed 1 (HS1)'s legal panel.

Addleshaw Goddard, DLA Piper, Herbert Smith Freehills and Linklaters have all been added to the roster for the railway company, which operates the line between St Pancras International train station in London and major international routes to Paris and Brussels.

Burges Salmon, Freeths, Foot Anstey, CMS, Shoosmiths and Gowling WLG have also been appointed.

According to the contract award notice, the panel is expected to run for an initial five-year period until June 2025, with the option of extending the panel by an additional two years.

The new panel is divided into eight lots, with Herbert Smith Freehills appointed to advise on general commercial and regulatory matters, DLA Piper to lead on employment and property issues, Addleshaws to focus on construction law, and Linklaters to advise on corporate, tax and corporate finance matters.

London Linklaters duo projects partner Fiona Hobbs and capital markets partner Julian Davies led the firm's bid for a place, according to the firm.

HSF fielded a London team led by global infrastructure head Patrick Mitchell, who has been an adviser to HS1 for more than 20 years, alongside competition partner Tim Briggs, and litigation partners Nusrat Zar and Howard Watson.

The initial tender document, published in July of last year, said that the panel was worth up to £15 million.

Businesses including Shell, BT and asset manager Lombard International have recently finalised their own legal panels.

BT initially paused its announcement on its new panel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while energy provider EDF said last month that it had paused its own panel review for the same reason.

An earlier version of this article stated that only four firms had been appointed to the panel. This was due to an administrative error that meant incorrect information was first released.

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