Sentences to ponder [Law firms and procurement]

Honeywell uses reverse auctions to procure legal services by law firms:

"Using reverse e-auctions to procure legal work isn’t entirely new, but companies have typically limited bidding to high-volume, non-critical work. Honeywell General Counsel Katherine Adams is using e-auctions on a larger scale, even for litigation. Law firms, Adams said, were initially “kind of shocked by this.”

“We might e-auction a litigation matter and set certain parameters. We might say, okay, assume you have to take the case through trial, assume there will be summary judgment motions, assume there will be some number of experts — all the variables that might go into the case,” Adams said. “Then the firms bid against each other.” "

More here. So much for the "but we're different argument" presented by the legal lobby for years justifying their inclusion in the Part B services section of Procurement Directives and now on Social and other specific services exception under Article 74 of the Directive 2014/24/EU. Which, coincidentally will be the topic of today's entry in my public procurement tennis match with Albert.

This willingness by the legal profession to be treated as any other service when in private procurement needs to be taken into account in the next revision of the Public Sector Directive.

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