Some of Australia’s largest law firms will be locked out of Commonwealth government work worth tens of millions of dollars for at least the next three years, as a post-PwC crackdown on external spending begins to hit the legal sector.

Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Herbert Smith Freehills, King & Wood Mallesons and MinterEllison all lost appointments to varying degrees after The Australian Financial Review reported earlier this month that price negotiations were delaying the finalisation of the government’s legal services panel.