Another massive decision to concentrate on one law firm (Linde)

Legal Week, Vol. 9, May 17, 2007 at 10, reports on a major convergence by the gas and engineering giant Linde, a European-based company that reported group revenue for 2006 of €12.4 billion (about $15 billion). The article did not give any information about how much the company spends each year on outside counsel, but benchmarks from US companies would suggest a range between 0.1 and 0.2 percent of revenue, or $15 to $30 million.

In February 2007 Linde named five firms to its worldwide panel. One of the firms, DLA Piper “secured 80% of the company’s legal work across Europe, Asia Pacific and the US” (See my post of April 22, 2007 regarding Tyco and Eversheds as its choice of a single firm; and May 9, 2007 for Northrop-Grumman’s similar convergence.). Could that mean DLA Piper is likely to take in more than $10 million a year from the panel arrangement?