Treasury concern over Freshfields fees on Eurostar sale

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is being scrutinised for charging £2.8m in legal fees when advising HM Treasury during the £585m sale of the government's 40 per cent stake in Eurostar in March this year.

A report by the National Audit Office said HM Treasury was ‘concerned about the cost of the legal work and considered re-procuring the legal adviser during the sale process but it decided that a change of legal team midway through the process would have been inefficient and problematic due to the time-critical nature of the work.’

Billed-time

Freshfields was appointed following a procurement process and its fees were charged on a billed-time basis rather than a fixed fee. A team led by corporate partner Stephen Hewes worked on the deal. Source: Legal Business

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