FAL Lawyers Appointed to Commonwealth Government’s Legal Panel

Effective 1 June 2012, FAL Lawyers has been appointed to the Commonwealth’s whole-of-government Legal Services Multi-Use List (LSMUL). Appointment to the LSMUL means that FAL is pre-qualified to provide legal services to Commonwealth departments, agencies and authorities. These Commonwealth entities are broadly required to use the LSMUL when purchasing Australian legal services.

FAL has been approved to provide services in the main “Corporate and Commercial Law” category of the LSMUL.

FAL founding Partner Peter Francis, says FAL has already acted in relation to many Commonwealth matters including with and for CSIRO, hospitals, defence, universities, Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) and recipients of Australian Research Council (ARC) funding.

“We are very pleased to have been appointed to the Commonwealth LSMUL. We see our appointment to the Commonwealth LSMUL as a natural progression from the expertise, service and value we have been delivering for many years now,” said Mr Francis.

Commonwealth legal work has customarily been bestowed upon the “big six” law firms. The Blunn and Krieger Report 2009 recognised that “some smaller firms have developed specialist expertise in particular areas of the law” and that “there is a strong case for encouraging developing firms and ‘boutique’ firms to tender for Commonwealth work.” This appointment reflects that boutique firms such as FAL are able to punch above their weight and compete with the “big six” on quality, delivery, innovation and provide unrivalled value.

FAL Lawyers has been on the Victorian Government Legal Panel since 2002 and has recently been independently ranked as one of the top performers on this Panel.