William Hill revamps legal advisory panel

William Hill has completed a major overhaul of its legal panel with three new firms added to its expanding roster including Linklaters and DLA Piper, eGaming Review can reveal.

In its first review in almost six years, the operator decided to restructure the panel by breaking it down into practice groups such as IT, finance and corporate, with firms allocated to sub-panels dependent on their area of expertise.

Formerly made up of just three law firms, Ashurst, Addleshaw Goddard and Pinsent Masons have all been reappointed to the external panel and are joined by newcomers Linklaters, DLA Piper and Bird & Bird.

Ashurst has long been seen as William Hill’s main legal advisor and last year led the operator through its acquisition of Sportingbet’s Australia and Spain-facing businesses ““ a deal which saw the operator shell-out around £3m in legal fees.

The law firm also advised the bookmaker on a £375m rights issue to fund the acquisition of the outstanding 29% stake of its online joint venture, William Hill Online, previously held by Playtech.

Meanwhile, the trio of new firms all possess on-the-ground expertise in Australia and the US, two parts of the world in which William Hill has shown it is keen to expand in.

However, it is understood William Hill will still be able to go off-panel for litigation advice, as was the case in 2008 when Dechert successfully defended the operator against a customer’s claim it exploited his gambling addiction by allowing him to open multiple accounts.

The review, which was concluded in the last few weeks, was headed-up by William Hill’s long-serving general counsel Thomas Murphy, who last May also took up the role of managing director of the Americas at the company.

Last summer William Hill chief exec Ralph Topping said his company was considering mounting a legal challenge against the UK Government’s plans to implement a 15% point of consumption tax.

Murphy and William Hill declined to comment on this article.