Many in Liverpool's legal sector are reaping the benefits of the city's commercial regeneration, but for some smaller firms it is a different story. Polly Botsford reports
Liverpool’s status as this year’s European Capital of Culture is both cause and effect of the city’s renaissance, in commerce as much as in culture, and Liverpool’s legal sector has been reaping the benefits of the boom.
The year-long celebration, branded ‘Liverpool08’ (which gives it a football-tournament feel) comes at a time of various public and private initiatives in the city. These include ‘Liverpool One’, a near £1 billion project over 42 acres which John Prescott called ‘a new urbanism’, a new Mersey ferry terminal and a new home for Liverpool FC. The city’s regeneration, which started with the Merseyside Development Corporation more than two decades ago, has accelerated dramatically in recent years, and the gold rush that is Liverpool08 has only added to the frenzy.
The legal sector has, on the whole, participated in and benefited from this new dawn. This is apparent in the way that many firms have witnessed expansion, broadening their practice areas and geographical presence to cover many more bases. In the past, alongside a strong mercantile streak, Liverpool’s legal tradition was marine and shipping. Hill Dickinson, the only national law firm to have its head office in the city, acted for the company that owned the Titanic – now the firm is the official lawyer, and a sponsor, of the capital of culture. The city also gained a reputation for being the ‘claims capital’ of England, with many firms acting in insurance disputes.
In recent years, however, there have been a number of mergers between larger and smaller firms to consolidate in different areas. Tony Wilson, senior partner at Hill Dickinson, explains: ‘Traditionally, we were a marine-based business. Four years ago we merged with Bullivant Jones, which gave us a more established Liverpool base and presence in the city.’ The firm has also recently pulled in the work of the Diocese of Liverpool with the arrival of Roger Arden, whose small practice has represented the ecclesiastical body for more than a hundred years.
Similarly, Weightmans, a firm of 90 partners in Birmingham, Leicester, London and Liverpool – where a third of the partnership is based – has undergone a number of mergers, the most recent with a team from Vizard Oldham. It wanted to extend beyond its original borders, both geographically and into different practice areas. It was much more effective to buy in these additional services than build them up from scratch, says Charlie Jones, a partner specialising in motor claims at Weightmans, so merging was the chosen method of growth. This expansion has contributed to the firm’s shift from pure insurance litigation and claims work, and now Weightmans can boast that 20% of its turnover comes from commercial business.
Other firms have concentrated on growing in more core areas such as commerce, corporate and, increasingly, financial services. Philip Rooney, office managing partner for Liverpool at international firm DLA Piper, explains his firm’s strategy: ‘We have always been unashamedly commercial and Liverpool is a mercantile city, so we have grown along those lines.’ And the extensive building work that comes with regeneration has given firms ample opportunity to develop their real estate teams, he adds, with DLA Piper building ‘a strong niche area in construction and planning’ there.
This sense of renewed confidence is reflected in the physical environment. Hill Dickinson moved into vast new offices – so new that the reception area has yet to be built – in Liverpool’s developing downtown area at the end of last year. Nor is the city’s enthusiasm dampened by the credit crunch. Wilson says Hill Dickinson sees this as an ‘opportunity to look outside of the domestic market’, and the firm has ambitious plans to look for a greater level of international work, not only in Europe but also in Asia.
The changes that have come about in the legal sector mean that lawyers outside Liverpool can have out-of-date notions of what the city has to offer. In order to dispel the clichés, the Liverpool Law Society is planning to embark on a PR assault to attract high-calibre lawyers from London. Jones, who is also vice-president of the Liverpool Law Society and chair of its future planning committee, calls it ‘corporate Liverpool’.
‘We are looking to find people to come and work here,’ he says, adding that there are plenty of reasons to choose the north west. ‘Liverpool has a combination of good-quality work as well as quality of life, which makes it attractive. The regeneration and the arrival of Liverpool08 has not only brought in new income, it has also raised the level on quality, with more complex projects for lawyers to work on’.
Anne Heseltine, president of the Liverpool Law Society, agrees that the city is a great place to be right now. She stresses that there is a broad range of firms, from the big players to the smaller, more niche firms to work for. But she says there is another quality: ‘The relationship between the professionals here is extremely good, even with lawyers on the other side [of a case]. We all know each other, and we work together where we can.’ For clients, of course, firms based in or with offices in the region can offer more competitive rates compared with London, with partner rates often being on a par with associate rates of magic circle or City firms.
In terms of quality of life, those who work in the city are enthusiastic about living there – the commute can be short, the countryside is nearby and there is plenty going on. The new Echo Arena, a 10,000-seater auditorium and conference centre, placed on the Mersey, will host the MTV Music Awards and BBC Sports Personality of the Year later in 2008. As the city’s very own venue, Heseltine says there will no longer be any need to ‘keep going to Manchester’.
The public relations drive is helped by the fact that there is a greater willingness among many junior lawyers to relocate. Many of the Liverpool law firms have found it easier to attract recruits from around the country in recent years with current pressures on training contracts. In any event, Rooney says: ‘Liverpool is a far easier place to sell now – though we like people to have some connection with the city as it means they are more likely to stay.’
The Liverpool story appears to be unfailingly positive. But there is a downside: many of the publicly funded high street firms are struggling due to the legal aid reforms. The nature of their work means they will not capitalise on the city’s regeneration. Heseltine concedes that the smaller firms with the bulk of their work in crime and family are struggling. John Ballam, chair of the Society’s criminal practice sub-committee, is more brutal: ‘These firms are having great difficulties. People are being made redundant, or leaving and not being replaced. There are no salary increases, so staff are moving on.’
Heseltine says that the profession, and the Liverpool Law Society, are doing all they can to help those adversely affected: ‘The sub-committee has been getting practitioners together to find common ground, holding extra meetings, particularly when firms were deliberating on whether to sign up to the new unified contract for criminal work.’
As Ballam says, however, the problem has been particularly hard to manage because ongoing uncertainty regarding future funding arrangements means no one knows what is going to happen: ‘The unified contract runs out on 13 July. What happens after that, no one knows. We can’t plan a business in such a situation. We want stability and finality from the LSC [Legal Services Commission] and the government.’
Nevertheless the city is a community-spirited one, and Heseltine says that those firms most affected are ‘working together’ as the reforms painfully roll out. Indeed, it was that very same sense of community which Jeremy Isaacs, chair of the committee that gave ‘capital of culture’ status to Liverpool, credited with swinging it for the city. ‘There was a greater sense... that the whole city [was] involved in the bid and behind the bid,’ he said.
When a flotilla of sailing ships weigh anchor in the Mersey this summer for the Tall Ships Race, last seen there in the early 1990s, it will be symbolic of Liverpool’s renewed optimism – the race will be returning to a city where people arrive rather than leave. Lawyers, too, are proving far from immune to the pull of the ‘Pool.
Polly Botsford is a freelance journalist
Ditching the stereotype
Liverpool is a city peculiarly prone to stereotyping – witness the efforts of public figures as diverse as Boris Johnson and Harry Enfield. But there is rather more to the place than The Beatles, Bill Shankly and ‘Boys from the Blackstuff’. The last decade has undoubtedly witnessed something of an economic renaissance, with Gross Value Added – a key measure of economic activity – now totalling more than £7bn. GVA per head in Liverpool went from being 6% below the north-west average in 1995 to 5% above it in 2005, emphasising the city’s competitive ability for wealth generation.
Employment grew 12% between 1998 and 2006, outperforming Britain as a whole (8.4%) and the north-west (8.2%). Liverpool now has more than 7,000 more jobs than would have been the case if employment had grown at the national rate. As might be expected, growth in the so-called ‘knowledge industries’ accounted for a large slice of the increase.
Liverpool still faces daunting challenges, nevertheless, one of which is a business base per number of residents which is just 61% of the UK average. The latest Liverpool Economic Briefing, published last month, notes: ‘The expansion of this business base, particularly growth in the number of firms operating in higher value-added and more knowledge-intensive sectors – must remain a key priority.’
Liverpool has more than 2,000 solicitors, according to the city’s Law Society, many of whom have capitalised on the redevelopment catalysed by major investment in the City. Regional commercial ‘heavyweights’ cited by the Legal 500 2007 include DLA Piper, DWF, Halliwells and Hill Dickinson.
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