E.ON and Pinsent Masons announce groundbreaking Partnership

03 Oct 2013 | 09:56 am | 1 min. read

E.ON UK and Pinsent Masons have announced a new partnership that will see the international law firm effectively become sole legal adviser to the UK business on a fixed-fee basis.

Under the terms of the groundbreaking new arrangement E.ON's UK legal function will reduce its roster of legal advisers to just one. The deal will last for five years and encompass work across a full range of specialist legal services.

E.ON, which employs around 12,000 people throughout the UK, has broad-based operations in the country including electricity generation and supplying power and gas to around 5 million customers.

E.ON's in-house UK legal team will continue to carry out a significant proportion of work while E.ON's central legal function (based in Düsseldorf) and specialist legal teams, such as E.ON Exploration & Production UK (based in London) will retain separate panels including a small number of UK firms.

Graham Line, Head of UK Legal at E.ON UK, says:

"This is an exciting and innovative partnership, not to mention a first in the UK energy sector. The legal function at E.ON has a prominent role to play in ensuring that our customers are treated fairly, and giving the business confidence as it makes infrastructure investments that are helping to keep the lights on now and in the future. We want to deliver a high-quality, high-value service to the business, and Pinsent Masons demonstrated through their approach and knowledge of the sector that they are the right partner to achieve that."

Jonathan Fortnam, a Partner at Pinsent Masons who led on the deal, says:

"E.ON is an impressive business which plays a vital role in the UK energy market. This arrangement will allow us to support them through the provision of a broad spectrum of specialist legal services, and give us the ability to develop the type of long-term, sustainable relationship that is key to true partnership."

The new partnership is the second 'sole provider' arrangement struck by Pinsent Masons this year. In March the firm announced that it had won a mandate to service much of Balfour Beatty's predictable legal work in the UK – a landmark deal which led to the firms being shortlisted in the 'Client Service' category of the FT Innovative Lawyer Awards 2013.

Richard Masters, Head of Client Operations and a Board member at Pinsent Masons, says:

"We recognise that innovation is about more than finding ways to make an old model fit the new world, and are delighted that several of our clients have responded positively to our proposals to move the emphasis firmly away from the billable hour."

Latest press releases

Show me all press releases

Pinsent Masons publishes its 2022 pay gap report

The pay gap regime applies to all UK businesses which employ more than 250 people. Our annual report outlines data relating to our UK workforce analysing pay gap data from a gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability perspective.

Pinsent Masons advises Prax Group on £249 million offer to acquire Hurricane Energy

Multinational law firm Pinsent Masons is advising Prax Group (Prax), in respect of the proposed acquisition of AIM-listed exploration and production company, Hurricane Energy plc (Hurricane).

Pinsent Masons appoints Eleanor Ludlam as new technology partner in London

Multinational law firm Pinsent Masons has hired partner Eleanor Ludlam to join the firm’s TMT team in London.

People who viewed this press release also viewed

Show me all press releases

Pinsent Masons advises Prax Group on £249 million offer to acquire Hurricane Energy

Multinational law firm Pinsent Masons is advising Prax Group (Prax), in respect of the proposed acquisition of AIM-listed exploration and production company, Hurricane Energy plc (Hurricane).

Pinsent Masons hires co-head of its investor-state arbitration practice in London

Multinational law firm Pinsent Masons has hired partner Graham Coop to the firm’s international arbitration practice.

Pinsent Masons advises IFC on landmark investment in Mongolia’s first ever green bond issuance

Multinational law firm Pinsent Masons has advised International Finance Corporation (IFC) on its investment in Mongolia’s first ever green bond issuance.

For all media enquiries, including arranging an interview with one of our spokespeople, please contact the press office on

+44 (0)20 7418 8199 or 

Location contacts

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.