Criminal firm jumps pack to grab first high-cost legal aid contractThe Legal Services Commission has signed its first very high-cost criminal case pilot contract with a law firm as it nears its decision about which firms will be on its new serious fraud panel.

The commission, which has replaced the Legal Aid Board, signed the first contract with Merseyside-based criminal law specialists David Phillips & Partners last Friday.Nigel Field, the commission's very high-cost case manager, confirmed: 'It's the only one so far.'David Phillips' head of crime, Stuart Nolan, said his firm produced an estimate for the case, which relates to an alleged 27 million VAT fraud and involves 15,000 pages of evidence, including a core plan, costing and analysis.

The case, starting in September, concerns the importation and distribution of computer components.

The fee-earners have agreed rates and have set a litigation schedule.

Mr Nolan said: 'We knew they would need people to pilot this scheme.

We pre-empted that decision by approaching them.

We knew they would be looking around and wanted to be in the vanguard.'The legal aid criminal law firm focuses on very high-cost criminal work, including murder and large-scale drugs cases.

Mr Nolan said: 'They have to assess what sort of firm you are.

Their criteria are quite exacting.

We believe a specialist firm like ourselves is ideally placed to pilot the new scheme.

We look forward to many years of success with this scheme.'Meanwhile, the nine-partner firm is planning to merge with Buckinghamshire-based solicitor-advocate John Davis of Davis Walker, which has been renamed as Davis Phillips & Partners in anticipation of the merger.

They will share David Phillips' Mayfair offices.Both firms have applied for a place on the serious fraud panel, which will contain the only firms to win publicly-funded work on very high-cost serious fraud charges once the Criminal Defence Service begins work on 2 October.Mr Field said the Legal Services Commission is considering applications now but has not made any formal decisions.

More than 100 firms have applied.As it selects its first panel, Mr Field has revealed that the commission is fine tuning its system to enable unsuccessful firms to 'get up to scratch'.

He explained: 'We will be working with firms which fall short.

It was always our intention to do that.

It was just a matter of how it would come about.' He described initial plans to help unsuccessful firms as 'onerous', adding: 'What we have done now is to say we will contract for cases of 100,000.'Anne Mizzi