LONDON, January 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

International law firm Eversheds and global manufacturing giant Tyco have signed their third groundbreaking contract for the provision of legal services across Tyco's Europe, Middle East and African operations.

The new contract will extend the flagship relationship for a further two years. Nearly six years on it remains a unique model in the way in which multi-national organisations source legal requirements across jurisdictions.  

Eversheds' long-standing relationship with Tyco, which began in 2006 when Tyco consolidated its legal services to just one firm across EMEA, continues to be one of the most progressive of its kind in the sector.

The new contract will see Eversheds deliver high quality legal services and client relationship management for the conglomerate beyond EMEA, with work being undertaken in more than 70 countries worldwide.

With the benefit of five years of metrics, the parties have agreed that all the operational work across EMEA will be delivered and managed within an absolute fixed fee.
The concept of client approval of upfront estimates on all engagements remains the bedrock of the management and control of costs on both the operational and project engagements. 

The contract once again encompasses further benefits for both parties to work on further innovation, by ensuring that where further control over spend is achieved both Eversheds and Tyco benefit. This innovative concept has been the basis of the successful partnership, underpinned by transparency, control and clear metrics for both parties. 

Over the period of the contract, the proportion of premium work undertaken by Eversheds for Tyco has grown sevenfold and now constitutes a majority of the total revenue from the contract and includes areas such as mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property and compliance. At the same time, Eversheds has worked closely with Tyco to reduce operational costs by millions of dollars across EMEA. This has been achieved through a range of innovative approaches, encouraging system changes, more efficient data use, targeting areas of high spend, strategic use of secondments, re-engineering of processes and effective budgeting and project management practices.   

Bryan Hughes, Eversheds' Chief Executive, said: 

"Our relationship with Tyco has continued to flourish and evolve. It continues to deliver pioneering solutions and exceptional benefits to a multi-national organisation, that had the conviction that things could be done better and more efficiently by using one firm for all of its cross jurisdictional legal needs.

"As Tyco's primary  legal service provider across EMEA, for the past five years, we have been able to develop a close working relationship which genuinely improves the service we deliver across the company's international operations.

"There is no doubt that the success of this pioneering contract has caused quite a stir in the market. We now utilise many of the disciplines derived from the Tyco partnership with other clients including Brady, Rolls-Royce and Orange and we continue to be approached by many multi-national organisations asking us to demonstrate the benefits of this approach, which we are always happy to do. This suggests that there is still a strong appetite for the evolved model."

Stephen Hopkins, client partner for Tyco commented: 

"The willingness of Tyco and Eversheds to invest in the early stages of this relationship has paid dividends. Not only has the arrangement delivered transparency and control over spend across a vast number of countries, but as compliance and risk become increasingly prominent features on a General Counsel's agenda, an effective, coordinated and consistent approach across multiple jurisdictions is becoming a necessity."

Dave Symonds, Senior Corporate Counsel UK/Europe at Tyco, said:

"We have continued to develop and improve on our partnership with Eversheds. We believe that it continues to be a leading edge model for the provision of legal services for a multi-national company such as ours. There are clear deliverables from the arrangement such as significant control over cost and improved budgeting, consistency in service across a great number of countries, improved risk and compliance and probably the most impressive feature, a change in mind set towards cost management and the delivery of legal services across the Tyco business and every Eversheds office. As the trust has built in the relationship, so has the quality of work which now flows to Eversheds and without fail, they are a firm which has delivered time and again for us."

Notes to editors

About Eversheds LLP

Eversheds LLP and its world wide offices have over 4,500 people who provide services to the private and public sector business and finance community. Access to all these services is provided through 46 international offices in 28 jurisdictions. Eversheds combines local market knowledge and access with the specialisms, resources and international capability of one of the world's largest law firms.

http://www.eversheds.com

SOURCE Eversheds