Legal Services Tenders and Bid Writing Services
Accounting for around 2.7% of the UK GDP, legal services play a crucial role in supporting and creating economic activity across a wide range of industries and sectors. Contributing an estimated £60.3 billion to the UK economy annually, follow our top tips for winning legal services contracts and boost your small, medium sized enterprise (SME).
What are legal services tenders?
The tendering process is a method of procurement used by the public and private sectors to buy legal services. The types of legal services commonly tendered for include, but are not limited to:
- Contract, commercial and corporate
- Debt recovery
- Litigation, reparation, employment, and inquiries
- Major infrastructure and commercial projects
- Property
- Legal technology
Tenders are your opportunity to respond to the needs of the buyer and prove why you are the best business to supply their needs (almost like an audition). You will be competing against firms and businesses that offer similar services, so demonstrating your USPs and ways that you can add value to your solution will help set you apart from the competition.
As contracts are awarded on the basis of being the ‘Most Economically Advantageous Tender’ (MEAT), your tender will need to prove that your legal services are the best value for money. This is especially true for public contracts which procure legal services for public use, which is funded by the Taxpayer. Being the MEAT does not necessarily mean that your service is the cheapest option, but that your costs can be justified by the quality of your service and social value. Read more about social value here.
The bidding process is designed to ensure that buyers obtain high-quality legal services at a fair price, while also promoting competition and transparency during the selection process. What this means is that SMEs have a fair chance to win contracts even when competing against huge firms/businesses. This is further supported by the UK Government’s commitment to procuring 30% of its contracts from SMEs annually.
Need a list of legal service frameworks in the UK?
Contact usWhere can I find legal services tenders?
All public legal services contracts are listed on the Government websites Find a Tender and Contracts Finder. However, we recognise that these can be difficult to navigate and keep track of, which is why we recommend using our free-to-use Tender Pipeline.
Tender Pipeline collects all opportunities from the Government sites and collates them in one easy-to-search place. Make sure you never miss an opportunity again by setting alerts for key words straight to your email, and check out our Search and Selection service that lets us do the hard work for you! Click here to sample the legal services contract opportunities live on Tender Pipeline.
Opportunities for private contract award are harder to find as private organisations are not required to advertise opportunities publicly. This means that unless you are known to the buyers, or in the right place at the right time, you may be missing out on countless opportunities.
Give your SME the greatest opportunity for contract award by bidding for public sector legal services contracts and use our top tips to make your bid stand out.
What are legal services frameworks?
Rather than bidding for a direct contract award where there is only one successful supplier (or as otherwise specified), frameworks are a list of suppliers from which the public buyer can choose to award contracts. Buyers can choose to either directly award contracts to a framework supplier, or they can choose to put the opportunity out to tender between the approved suppliers. Framework award follows the same winning criteria as the tendering process, being the MEAT. Frameworks are trusted providers of suppliers to big-name, big-spending buyers.
As such, when you are bidding for a framework, you are not bidding for contract award, but rather for a place on their successful suppliers list. Framework award doesn’t necessarily guarantee you contract award, but it certainly does narrow down the pool of competing suppliers for any opportunities that come up during the framework lifetime. Frameworks award placements to several suppliers at a time, rather than directly awarding just one. This means that bidding for framework placement gives you greater odds of visibility verses traditional procurement methods. Another key point is that frameworks are fantastic for firm/business exposure. The kinds of buyers who will have access to this list of suppliers are buyers who are looking to procure legal services. Think of it as a concentrated pool of legal services buyers and suppliers. You can also access live frameworks to identify your competition and improve your service delivery to make sure you are in the best position when writing and submitting your bid.
Click here to learn more about frameworks!
Where can I find legal tender frameworks?
There are several legal services frameworks, each varying in size and scope. Below are 4 of our recommended frameworks for legal services SMEs to consider joining.
Note: Some framework opportunities mention ‘lots’. This is where the opportunity is split into parts, each varying in requirements, for example covering geographic areas or differing in scope. Each lot will award a specified number of suppliers, but this may differ between different lots within the same opportunity.
Framework | Scope |
Renewing in November 2024, is a 3 year framework with opportunities for 12 month extension listing 17 suppliers over 2 lots:
Offering contract opportunities in 60 specialist areas, this framework covers:
| |
CPC are an education-sector framework that procure legal services including, but not limited to:
This framework is split in to 7 lots and is shared between 47 approved suppliers. This is a 3 year framework with an optional extension period of 12 months, due to renew in May 2025. | |
This is an NHS framework that specialises in:
| |
Next renewing on 02/09/2023, this framework is split between 36 suppliers and 12 lots:
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Looking for a bid writing partner
Contact us todayWhy should I bid for legal tenders?
Offering additional payment protection through highly regulated public procurement procedures, winning public sector legal services contracts can afford your SME guaranteed income for the duration of the contract. This is a more secure guarantee than private sector companies where there is the constant possibility of the buyer’s company dissolving/breaking contract terms resulting in an unexpected loss of income and work.
Payment assurance is further protected for public contracts as buyers are bound to the Prompt Payment Policy. This ensures that suppliers pay at least 90% of their invoices to SMEs within 5 days, and 100% within 30 days.
Furthermore, typically running for between 3-5 years, public legal services contracts are a reliable source of income without the hassle of having to constantly be on the lookout for your next opportunity. Direct your resources back into your service and get in touch to see how we can help you write winning bids.
Are legal tenders right for my legal firm?
Tender suitability will always vary between opportunities, but a top tip for companies looking to secure legal contracts is to make sure that your service meets the requirements of the specification. We know how exciting it can be to find the perfect opportunity, or how eager you may be to start winning public sector contracts. But it’s important to remember that a considered and targeted approach will always score more highly than repurposed and generic response.
Speak to our expert bid writing team to discuss the best approach to tendering for your SME.
Bid writing top tips for legal tenders
Winning legal bids since 2009, our bid writers have listed 3 common mistakes and oversights made by non-professional writers when bidding for legal services contracts. Follow our top tips and make your bid stand out from the crowd.
- Write in plain speak: The awarding panel will thank you for writing easy-to-read bids that follow simple sentence structures. The easier you make it for the panel member to identify and understand your bid, the higher the score you are allowing yourself to be awarded. This is because the information is presented clearly and not hidden in convoluted sentences, reducing the chance of any important information being missed or misunderstood. Top tip: Other ways to make your bid easy to read include:
- Using images/diagrams to demonstrate complex ideas
- Using bold to draw attention to important information
- Using headings to guide the reader through your bid. (This is an especially good opportunity to use the question’s text to show that you are answering the question directly)
How Thornton & Lowe can help you win legal services contracts
Make your legal services tenders pay with the help of Thornton & Lowe.
We know that our clients have what it takes to win, and we champion the SMEs that make it
happen. With a success rate of 75% and 90% client retention, get in touch and let us be the voice that wins your business legal services contracts today! View live legal tenders for FREE.
