London—Dentons, the world's largest law firm, is to host the Buying Legal Council's EMEA Legal Procurement Conference taking place in London on 12 June 2018. The aim of the conference is to bring together legal procurement professionals and stakeholders in the legal profession to build mutual understanding and encourage greater collaboration between them.

The Buying Legal Council is the international trade organisation for legal procurement. Its members are tasked with sourcing legal, alternative and ancillary legal services and managing supplier relationships.

The EMEA Legal Procurement Conference will feature a number of guest speakers and panel discussions, covering a broad range of procurement topics, such as how procurement can leverage technology of the legal department, critical elements of non-hourly pricing, achieving maturity in metrics and sourcing, digital procurement intelligence, the power of procurement to drive innovation, the future of the legal panel process, and what is important to in-house counsel when procuring legal services.

"We are delighted to be bringing our legal procurement conference to Europe once again – this time incorporating the Middle East and Africa in addition to Europe," said Dr Silvia Hodges Silverstein, Executive Director of the Buying Legal Council. "Legal procurement professionals are involved in everything from negotiating discounts and fee arrangements, and issuing RFPs and outside counsel billing guidelines, to establishing panels and lists of professional provisions, and overseeing and implementing process improvements. They also contribute to significant cost savings when it comes to their companies' legal spend, particularly when procurement is well aligned with and works in partnership with the in-house law department.

"Overall, legal procurement professionals have an important role to play within their businesses, and we see enormous potential for improving communication and encouraging collaboration between procurement and the legal profession," Dr Hodges Silverstein continued. "This conference will be a great opportunity to bring together people from all sides of table to help bridge the gaps that exist."

"If legal providers, in-house teams and procurement professionals stopped fighting and started working together, imagine what could be achieved," said Damian Taylor, Dentons' Marketing and Business Development Director for the UK and Middle East and panellist at the conference. "Too often procurement goals and processes are seen to be at odds with those of in-house counsel and external legal teams, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Taking time to understand what everyone is trying to achieve and how their processes work will ultimately lead to better outcomes for everyone involved."

Speakers and panellists confirmed so far for the Buying Legal Council EMEA Legal Procurement Conference include: Jonathan Ames from The Times, Stephanie Hamon from Barclays, Laura Doyle from Royal Bank of Scotland, Sandy Duncan from Lloyds Banking Group, Vincent Gautheron from Nationwide Building Society, Cian Power from Imperial Brands, Claire Phillips from Sainsbury's, Nick Williams from Proxima, Sarah Barrett-Vane from SBV Legal Operations, Richard Stock from Catalyst Consulting , Orazio Difruscolo from Swiss Re, Michael Tal from BusyLamp, Jo Guy from Lloyds Banking Group, Jerome Raguin from Yerra Solutions, Denise Nurse from Halebury, Tim Nightingale from Nisus Consulting, Mike Dudman from City Costs Management, Hans Schuurman from Law4ce, and Damian Taylor and Keri Cupples from Dentons.

Click here to register to attend the Buying Legal Council EMEA Legal Procurement Conference.

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