Bradford, Hull and York also offer much to keep lawyers interested, reports Cameron Timmis


Leeds may consider itself the dominant force in Yorkshire, but there are other cities – such as Sheffield, Bradford, Hull and York – which have their own distinct and sometimes buoyant legal markets.



Sheffield is the fifth largest city in the UK – Leeds, in fourth place, is larger by a whisker – and it plays host to three major UK law firms. DLA Piper, Irwin Mitchell and Nabarro Nathanson all have offices there, as well as a crop of well-respected medium-sized practices, including HLW, Keeble Hawson, Wake Smith and Taylor & Emmet. Manchester-based Halliwells also has a small but growing presence in the city.



But unlike Leeds, Sheffield has struggled to shed its image as an old-fashioned manufacturing town. There are signs that this is changing, however, with the city undergoing something of a renaissance akin to Leeds, which in turn has fuelled greater demand for legal services.



‘The local economy is definitely on the up,’ says Paul Firth, managing partner of DLA Piper’s Sheffield office. ‘It’s one of the fastest-growing economies in the country.’ The second-largest firm in the city with 375 employees – Irwin Mitchell is bigger – DLA Piper has been in Sheffield for more than 200 years in various guises, and claims to be the third-oldest business in the region.



Although a relative minnow in the context of DLA Piper’s global empire, the Sheffield office contributes around £25 million to the firm’s turnover, and is also its main administrative centre for back-office operations. To DLA Piper devotees, it is also significant for another reason: many of the firm’s current senior leadership – including joint chief executive officer Nigel Knowles and UK managing director Andrew Darwin – began their careers there. Hence, says Mr Firth, the firm ‘really came from here’.



The firm’s clients range from traditional steel and engineering companies, like Corus, to newer IT and biotech companies. ‘Sheffield’s economy has diversified,’ says Mr Firth. ‘It’s no longer reliant on engineering.’ One sign of Sheffield’s emerging stature is the number of banks that have increased their commercial operations in the city, notably HBOS, Bank of Ireland and Alliance & Leicester. Last month, Swedish banking group Handelsbanken also launched there. ‘The fact they are opening shows the interest in south Yorkshire,’ says Nabarro Nathanson partner Matthew Sibley. ‘People are lending money, banks are competing, businesses are flourishing.’



Since arriving in Sheffield in 2001, Mr Sibley has seen a definite shift in its fortunes. Once the only dedicated banking lawyer in the Sheffield office, he now leads a team of eight specialists, who source around 50-60% of their work locally. ‘The market here seems vibrant,’ he says, but concedes that Sheffield still has something of an image problem: ‘It’s still got a tag – I don’t think the “Full Monty” really helped – but it’s not dark, satanic mills anymore.’


As well as its finance and corporate work, Nabarro Nathanson, which has 220 staff and 18 partners in Sheffield, is noted for its litigation practice, acting for public sector clients such as the Department of Trade and Industry. The strength of this practice stems from its origins in the region: the firm originally launched its south Yorkshire office in nearby Doncaster following a successful tender to manage the legal function for the British Coal Board, before moving to Sheffield in 1992. Once making up 98% of its work, British Coal now only accounts for around 7% of fees, says Mr Sibley.

With around 115 staff in the city (it also has a 60-strong office in Leeds), Keeble Hawson represents Sheffield’s middle tier of law firms, which mainly target the owner-managed and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector.

As well as a significant corporate practice, it recently advised Sheffield bus operator Traction Group on its £32 million acquisition by the Stagecoach Group. Keeble Hawson also has a flourishing personal injury practice, acting for the likes of the GMB union, where it competes with well-known claimant firms Thompsons and Russell Jones & Walker, both of which have Sheffield offices.

‘We are one of the old stagers in Sheffield,’ says partner Rosemary Downs. ‘We do a wide range of stuff. Claimant personal injury is a very significant department for us.’ The firm runs the Asda Law Club, a national scheme in which Asda employees pay a small amount from their payroll to obtain free legal advice on personal injury-related claims.

The firm also has a sizeable commercial property team, which spans its Sheffield and Leeds offices. ‘There is now a great deal more building activity going on in Sheffield,’ says Ms Downs, citing the £120 million Heart of the City urban regeneration scheme, which includes the Winter Garden, and many office developments.

Given its size – the 11th largest urban area in the UK – the west Yorkshire city of Bradford is under-represented in terms of law firms, claiming only a handful of practices of any size, such as Last Cawthra Feather, which also has offices in Shipley and Ilkley, Schofield Sweeney, which also has an office in Leeds, and Gordons, which has a Leeds presence too.

Launched just eight years ago as a sole practitioner firm, Schofield Sweeney has grown to more than 75 lawyers and 14 partners. ‘I thought there was a real demand for a decent commercial outfit,’ recalls founding partner Chris Schofield. ‘We have got to the stage where we are a fairly substantial team. Whether that was the ambition, I don’t know.’ Today, the firm’s work is split equally between corporate, property and social housing private finance initiative projects. ‘It would be nice to see some more firms,’ says Mr Schofield. ‘The competition would be good.’


In east Yorkshire, or the Humber region, Hull is the economic centre and an important location for food manufacturing and shipping. Three firms lead the market, competing on similar terms: Gosschalks, Andrew M Jackson and Rollits. According to Rollits’ managing partner Richard Field, about 75% of the firm’s work is for business clients, principally owner-managed and SMEs, where it targets deals worth between £2 million and £80 million.


The firm is particularly noted for its food division, led by Julian Wild, which advises food clients on intellectual property, health and safety and food regulation, as well as funding and acquisitions work. ‘Some larger firms have food groups or food teams, but none have the ability to go out and broker deals and find funding,’ says Mr Field.

Unlike its two Hull counterparts, Rollits also has an office in York, home to around 30% of the firm’s 85 fee-earners. The firm opened in the city 14 years ago. ‘York has got a mix of tourism, a substantial and successful university, and it’s also the centre of north Yorkshire, where there are a lot of very good, solid businesses,’ says Mr Field.

Other substantial practices in York include Denison Till, Langleys and Harrowell Shaftoe. Few would dispute Denison Till’s claim to be the number one commercial firm in the city. Commercial property work has been particularly prolific, says managing partner Alistair Duncan: ‘There has been an awful lot of development locally, particularly with the university, which is doubling in size.’ The university is also a key client for corporate work because of the growing number of spin-off businesses it generates, especially in the biotech and digital media industries.

Another growing source of work is landed estates: ‘More and more of the larger estates are looking to develop commercially with cafes, restaurants and concert promotions,’ says Mr Duncan.

And that, like so much of what is happening in Yorkshire at the moment, means more work for the region’s lawyers.


Cameron Timmis is a freelance journalist