Leeds: June 2010
2009 was a difficult year for all law firms and other professional services organisations, with cost-cutting exercises carried out across Leeds and the wider Yorkshire region. Firms of all sizes were forced to make redundancies, drop lawyers to 4-day working weeks, enforce internal secondments or offer reduced-pay sabbaticals to their lawyers in order to reduce the wage bill. The first quarter of 2010, however, has been much more encouraging and firms are demonstrating more confidence in the market by picking up their recruitment activity, seeking to complement their now streamline teams with quality appointments.
The traditional bedrock of the Leeds marketplace is its transactional work - with firms such as Addleshaw Goddard, DLA Piper, Eversheds, Walker Morris, Hammonds and Pinsent Masons (otherwise known as the "Big 6" of Leeds) enjoying national reputations for their banking, corporate and real estate divisions. As the country emerges from the worst recession in possibly 100 years, many feared it would take the Leeds legal scene longer to recover due to it being a real transactional hub. It has, however, defied expectations and an air of cautious optimism is sweeping through the city.
Indeed, some firms have been able to continue to grow in spite of the difficult conditions - DWF being the prime example by trebling its Leeds-based workforce in under two years, drawing in some regional big-hitters to provide a full-service offering in Yorkshire. Ward Hadaway are another who are making strong, sensible strategic appointments which will hopefully enable it to be a real challenger in the region. They, along with other strong mid-tier firms, such as Gordons, offer a viable alternative to the Big 6, especially to the more local client-base. On the contentious side, leading niche litigation firm Stewarts Law continue to make waves as they continue to offer truly first-rate advice from a smaller but specialist base that more than competes with the traditional top-tier. The appointment in Autumn 2009 of Jonathan Sinclair from Eversheds to head up the Leeds commercial litigation team underpins that reputation.
Contentious work, and particularly insurance-based work, has remained strong throughout the downturn. The professional negligence market in Manchester has boomed (please see Louisa Hill's Manchester market overview) but in Leeds where there are fewer specialist insurance practices, disciplines such as employment, commercial litigation, insolvency and banking litigation have still performed well. Mid-level lawyers in each of those areas are still in heavy demand!
We are pleased to see an increase in the number of non-contentious roles at firms of all sizes across the region. Real estate and corporate teams are a lot busier than they were 6 to 12 months ago; with more instructions extending beyond merely carrying out due diligence and now more clients are actually completing strategic deals and acquisitions. This has directly influenced the recruitment needs of those firms experiencing an upturn in instructions and the future is certainly looking more promising than the darker days of recent times. The progress of finance teams really will depend on the banks lending again and not simply providing refinancing support or relying on the return of the balance sheet.
It is early days in the recovery from the financial crisis, but there are enough signs that the Leeds legal market place is on the right track and that the firms that have survived these testing times can only get stronger. Which is good news for all of us!
