How long does Osborne Clarke LLP take to pay its suppliers?

Standard payment terms

The LLP does not use standard terms. Unless otherwise agreed with suppliers, the most frequently used payment terms are: • For advice and opinions provided by UK and overseas law firms and counsel that are billed to clients, payment terms are typically 30 days from invoice date. However, the majority of these services are procured on a 'paid when client pays' basis. In common with many law firms Osborne Clarke has a policy of payment within 48 hours of payment by the LLP’s client. • For all other services and goods payment terms are also typically 30 days from invoice date, payments are made every 7 days (i.e. once a week). Each payment run will include all approved invoices that become due according to supplier terms within each 7 day period. Payments are made by BACs and suppliers r

Dispute resolution

Payments may be delayed where the invoiced services or goods have not been received or are of poor quality. Disputes are not handled centrally by one specific team but are instead handled by the individual impacted by the supply. For example, where the services supplied are for the benefit of a client on a particular matter, the legal matter manager will engage with the supplier. Similarly, where services are supplied for the benefit of a particular Business Service it will be the relevant Business Service manager who engages with the supplier. Once resolved, payment is included in the next available payment run if due for payment.

Other information

The above statistics relate solely to payments against supplier terms but as noted above the LLP has adopted defined payment policies for many years which includes overseas law firms and counsel procured on a 'paid when client pays' basis. Were those payment policies to be recognised the average number of days taken to make payments reduces significantly to 32 days