State moves to curb legal services spend

The state is seeking to drive down legal costs by centralising the purchasing of 100,000 hours of annual solicitor work.

Currently, government departments, agencies and councils all hire their own solicitors separately.

But the Office of Government Procurement has found they can be charged different prices for the same type of work and that there is a heavy reliance on a small number of large legal firms.

It is now going to take ...