From the 15th floor of Hammond Suddards' London office, senior partner Alan Bottomley has a clear view of most of his City rivals.

Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith have long been legal landmarks in this part of the capital, but more recently the comp lexion of City law firms has changed as the regions have made their presence felt.

Underlining this march from the north is Dibb Lupton Broomhead.

Like Hammond Suddards, the firm is based in Leeds, but has substantial offices in Mr Bottomley's direct line of fire, further down the London Wall.

A few hundred yards further east is Hammond Suddards' previous residence, vacated just three weeks before the IRA detonated the Bishopsgate bomb.Mr Bottomley remembers: 'All the windows of the floor we had been on were smashed, we were very lucky to get out when we did.'With every success story there has to be an element of luck.

Since the explosion Hammonds has gone from strength to strength.

It has doubled its fee-earning capacity to £40 million in the past five years and, with over 300 fee-earners, holds claim to be the 13th ranked commercial practice in the City.

Mr Bottomley, 64, the man credited with being behind the Hammonds' success story, retires as a partner next year.The foundations for the firm's impressive rate of expansion were laid by Mr Bottomley as far back as 1971 when he started to build up the corporate and commercial practice of Yorkshire-based AV Hammond & Co, as it then was.One of the key features of this period was the provision of corporate legal services to Yorkshire's 'most prestigious and fast growing companies', many of which Hammonds still acts for today.

In 1988, AV Hammond & Co amalgamated with fellow Bradford and Leeds-based firm Last Suddards.

It was primarily a commercial property and town and country planning practice which complemented the corporate and litigation work of AV Hammond.A special client service has been fundamental to Mr Bottomley's philosophy.

He still spends time making personal visits to Hammond's client offices.'I spend a couple of hours with the chief executive trying to find out if they are satisfied with our legal services or if there are any ways we can improve them.'These visits are usually much more than courtesy calls.

Mr Bottomley makes it known from the start that unless 'people tell me straight' they are wasting their time.

Says Mr Bottomley: 'If they didn't like the work we were doing then they wouldn't stick with us.

Generally, I hear very nice things about our lawyers but every now and then there may be a case we didn't do very well with.'Mr Bottomley points out that sometimes these criticisms are unfair.

'But they are still the client's view and the lawyers have got to realise that.' If a client objects to a lawyer, even though he has done a good job, he is still replaced by another, says Mr Bottomley.It is this commitment to an excellent service which has enabled the firm to win and keep high profile clients.

In 1992, ICI appointed the firm to carry out all its UK litigation.

Again, fortune smiled at a crucial moment in the firm's evolution.Hammonds had just established its London office, essential to a leading plc looking for solicitors.Mr Bottomley played a pivotal role in securing the three-year contract and recalls: 'There was a rumour going around that ICI had some work going.

No one knew what it was so I gave them a ring, found out what it was, and asked them to consider us.'In many ways his insistence on a more corporate approach to legal services has been at the forefront of Hammonds' success: 'We can't keep a client by divine right.

You have got to look at things from the client's point of view.

The client is really interested in earnings per share or profits or whatever, not an obscure piece of law which may or may not be won in the House of Lords.'He says one of the reasons why Hammonds has been able to win work from the established City firms is that it is able to cut costs.

'Our overheads are split between the regions and the City,' he says, adding: 'We came in when the rents were low and we are not renting a marble palace.'The principal reason for establishing a London office was to expand the firm's international work and build on the Brussels office.

Now one-third of the firm's work is done from the City.

'We did not think that it [London] would become such an important profit centre and part of the firm in its own right.'He maintains that because the established City firms 'neglected' their provincial manufacturing distributive industry base during the 1980s, regional firms were able to crack the market.

'All our lawyers are used to visiting mills and factories and have seen industrial processes.

They know how they work,' he points out.This willingness to see clients at home rather than waiting for them to visit is something Mr Bottomley has been keen to foster in lawyers who have travelled with him from Leeds to London.A demonstration of this pro-active business strategy is the fact that Hammonds has even picked up clients who share the firm's same London Wall offices.Another important feature has been Hammonds' ability to attract high quality partners from City firms.

'We were fortunate that when we opened the London office it was at a time when outstanding lawyers were willing to consider moving.' He believes a similar London move ten years ago would have failed because the lawyers would not have come.Now they come, explains Mr Bottomley, because they may be 'unhappy with the direction of their current firm' and because Hammonds has been 'open' about its intentions.

'If people are going to risk their lives with us then you have to be open with them.'Hammonds has enticed high flying partners to staff their units with 'good young lawyers' below them.

'This has been the best way to attack the London market,' he says.And the firm continues to win leading clients.

Hammonds recently announced that it was acting for one of the two Rausing brothers, one of the UK's richest families, on the break-up of their Tetrapak empire.

In 1994, Acquisitions Monthly listed the firm as advising on more UK private take-overs than any other law firm.For the future, Mr Bottomley predicts even greater expansion.

He hands over to John Heller, the firm's head of litigation, whom he describes as 'dynamic' and an 'inspirational leader'.