Co-op overhauls legal panel

THE CO-OPERATIVE Group has announced an overhaul of its legal panel following its recent mergers with Somerfield and Britannia Building Society.

The organisation has announced a new three-firm panel to handle its commercial work and has said that it is also embarking on a review of its City legal panel.

The three firms appointed to handle its commercial work are incumbents TLT and Manchester-based Addleshaw Goddard – both of whom have been advising the group since 2006 – and newly-appointed Pinsent Masons.

A spokesman for the Co-operative group said that all three of the firms “have the required strengths to support The Co-operative Group and Co-operative Financial Services on a national scale”.

Addleshaw Goddard’s managing partner, Paul Devitt, said: “The Co-operative Group and CFS are market-leading and distinctive businesses across a range of sectors and we are proud and delighted to have been chosen for this panel once again. We have developed a real understanding of the group’s businesses and markets in a way which has helped us to support its priorities and ambitions.”