COG Legal

COG Legal provide award-winning legal spend management solutions and consulting. The growing team of qualified lawyers, legal spend management experts, former Legal Operations Directors and Project Managers manage legal spending for some of the largest global organisations, from the company’s base in East Boldon, South Tyneside.

COG Legal has continued to grow during the pandemic, increasing its client base and helping companies in a wider range of industries save on their external legal spend.

The company allows for full flexibility in working patterns, offering remote working combined with an open, family-friendly policy to working life, all while delivering a comprehensive and first-class service to its global clients. COG Legal signed up to the Pledge to continue to grow, recruit and procure in South Tyneside.

Coote O'Grady — Chief Executive Caroline O’Grady and staff at COG Legal

Co-CEO Caroline O’Grady said:

“Our roots in South Tyneside allow us to be competitive on a global scale, keeping business in the UK but working with large corporate Fortune 500 companies worldwide. We’re unique in our business offering and it’s great to bring these types of roles to South Tyneside.”

“We believe there’s an untapped pool of talent in the North East, especially in South Tyneside and we’re committed to developing this talent in the region. We have had very good success hiring good people in the region, and the level of talent and willingness to learn really shines, we’ve also hired several staff from the Government Kickstart Scheme. Our target is to hire a minimum of 50% of our staff from the North East and currently over 80% of our workforce is based in South Tyneside.

“As a forward-thinking employer, we’re committed to giving something back to the communities we work in, giving at least 1% of revenue to a charity voted for our employees each year.

“Our legal spend team also gives back through employee volunteering, all our employees can give at least two days of paid work time a year volunteering in the local community. From a corporate social responsibility perspective, signing up to the Pledge is the right thing to do, and we encourage other local businesses to do the same.

“We also feel it’s important for more North East businesses to help each other, with our client base being predominantly global it would be great to collaborate with more businesses here and work towards that collective goal as set out by the Pledge. Over the next five years, we’re really looking to grow and scale up with ambitious plans in place and a great pipeline of work, which will lead to recruitment.”

Cllr Tracey Dixon, Leader of South Tyneside Council and Chair of South Tyneside Partnership said:

“We are welcoming more and more South Tyneside businesses to the Pledge who are all committed to improving our communities and ensuring South Tyneside is a vibrant place to live, work and enjoy.

“COG Legal is a unique business in South Tyneside and brings a wealth of expertise and opportunities with its global client base. We look forward to seeing them continue to grow and create more opportunities in the region.”

Launched in January 2022, the South Tyneside Pledge aims to boost local economic activity, reduce health inequalities, cut carbon emissions and enhance civic pride for the benefit of the whole Borough. The pledge sets out nine commitments, which are all about keeping things local, through a short report every six months.

Organisations, public and private, big businesses and small firms, can sign up at any time and become part of the Pledge South Tyneside network at www.southtyneside.gov.uk