Pinsent Masons wins Innovation in Pricing and Innovation in Financial Management awards at The Lawyer Business Leadership Awards

The firm's sole legal adviser partnership with energy company E.ON secured first prize in the Innovation in Pricing category.

Under the groundbreaking arrangement E.ON's UK legal function has reduced its roster of legal advisers to just one with the deal encompassing a full range of specialist legal services across the 12,000 employee business.

Jonathan Fortnam, a Partner at Pinsent Masons who led on the deal, said: "E.ON is an impressive business which plays a vital role in the UK energy market. This arrangement allows us to support them through the provision of a broad spectrum of specialist legal services, and give us the ability to develop with E.ON the type of long-term, sustainable relationship that is at the heart of our partnership."

The firm scooped the Innovation in Financial Management award for successfully implementing a combined procurement and contracts team into its existing business operations structure.

Between September 2014 and April this year the innovative approach to procurement delivered cost savings of £6.5 million on approximately £60 million of spend.

Legal Director responsible for the Central Procurement and Contracts Team at Pinsent Masons, Myles Blewett, said: "Successfully combining these two skill sets has broken the mould in the legal services industry which has so far seen relatively little penetration by procurement as a function in its own right and often reserved its expertise in this area for its client base.

"The firm recognises that it needs to practice what it preaches and has implemented a robust, consistent procurement and contracting solution for its own supply chain."