Small law firms to benefit from new tendering system

Small law firms are set to benefit from a new system of public tendering for legal services in Ireland, the minister of state for finance has said.

Simon Harris told the Irish Times that a Request for Tender published last week was broken up into eleven lots to allow “firms with specific expertise in practice areas to compete on a lot by lot basis”.

This was principally done so that small- and medium-sized law firms could participate and to “match public sector needs to the capacity and capability of the market place”.

Mr Harris said public sector legal services contracts over the next four years would be worth around €100 million.

The new system was adopted after a period of “pre-tender engagement” with the legal industry, which “helped to shape the structure and inform the scope of the competition”.

Mr Harris said: “Law firms of all sizes were encouraged to share their experiences of previous public sector procurement competitions, and their views on barriers to competition and participation.”

The competition is to establish a number of multi-supplier framework agreements for the provision of legal services to public sector bodies (excluding central government departments). More information is available on the eTenders website.

The closing date for receipt of tenders is noon on 23 November 2015.