Back to the future

Birmingham's 3,000 lawyers are helping this sleeping giant to reinvent itself as a player in the international business community.

Victoria MacCallum samples legal life in the city

In the grand tradition of former industrial giants across the country, Birmingham is undergoing something of a renaissance.

Sloughing off its previous incarnation as the home of motorcars and metal-bashing, this city at the heart of the country is reinventing itself for the new millennium.

Although it wears its industrial heritage proudly - an adopted son of the city, the inventor of the steam engine, James Watt, is among those honoured with a statue - Birmingham is turning its face towards the future.

Where once there were factories and production lines, there are now investment banks and call centres; the plethora of cranes dominating the city skyline is testament to the determination of this city to rebuild itself and become a major player in the international business community.

An integral part of this grand 21st century business plan is, of course, Birmingham's legal community.

With 3,000 solicitors in the city - 3,000 more are based in the surrounding areas - there is certainly no shortage of lawyers, but is there enough work to keep them busy?

The launch earlier this month of the Advised in Birmingham (AiB) scheme (see [2003] Gazette, 23 January, 5) is an attempt by Birmingham Law Society to ensure just that.

In conjunction with the city's bar, the Institute of Legal Executives, the College of Law and the University of Central England, AiB aims to raise the city's profile to attract not only more clients from outside the region but also good lawyers from other cities.

'There is a huge amount in Birmingham to bang the drum about,' says Birmingham Law Society president Anthony Collins, senior partner of 17-partner Anthony Collins Solicitors.

'We want to show people that there are a lot of good lawyers here and that we are capable of handling big-money deals - and handling them well.'

Recent deals completed by Birmingham-based lawyers include DLA advising T&S Store's management team on the 350 million acquisition by Tesco; Pinsent Curtis Biddle's health team representing University Hospital Coventry, Warwickshire NHS Trust and Coventry Healthcare NHS Trust on a 354 million private finance initiative financing deal; and Eversheds' work on the 229 million sale of Druck Holdings to GE.

'There may be an intellectual perception of a London bias, but I don't think that the standard of work being done here is any different from in the City of London,' says Diane Benussi, senior partner of niche matrimonial firm Benussi & Co and the vice-president of Birmingham Law Society.

'There's a real confidence to the legal community here that there wasn't ten years ago; they always used to see London as the big boys, whereas now they're up and running and don't feel the need to be big in London.'

This attitude is one that is shared by Quentin Poole, managing partner at Birmingham's largest firm, Wragge & Co.

Although it has offices in London and Brussels, the firm is proud to claim that its headquarters remain in the heart of the midlands.

'Our attitude is that clients don't care about geography,' he explains.

'They are more bothered about how good and cost-efficient you are than whether you're down the road or not.'

The firm's Birmingham office comprises 1,100 staff - it is the largest UK firm with a primary base outside London - and from there it services deals both across the country and abroad.

'Because we don't have offices in Manchester, Leeds, or anywhere else in the UK bar London, we can concentrate our resources in one place and offer a service which can rival the magic circle firms.'

With a client list featuring FTSE 100 companies such as Ford, Powergen and BP, Wragges seems to be competing with the big City players, and one of the reasons for that is Birmingham's price advantage.

One of AiB's main selling points is that clients get 'more law per hour' in Birmingham, and Mr Poole agrees that this is one of the city's major benefits for clients.

'The average office rent per square foot in London is 50, compared to 22 up here - this means we can produce one hour of law for about two-thirds of the price, and at the same level of quality,' he says.

Lower overheads are a substantial factor in Birmingham's race to compete with London, but the city also has history on its side, according to Mr Poole.

'For the last 20 years, Birmingham has had to battle for work,' he says.

'Unlike London firms, we've always been hungry for the fight, so we're well placed to cope with a corporate downturn such as the one we are experiencing at the moment.'

Despite this fighting talk, Birmingham-based firms are not immune to the economic troubles affecting scores of lawyers across the country.

The consensus is that corporate work is 'patchy', with flotations, mergers and acquisitions and IT work particularly dry.

The decline of the area's traditional manufacturing industries - the 'midlands metal bashers' - has also affected many practices.

'The biggest change in the last decade has been the decline in corporate work from local big companies,' admits David Gwyther, managing partner of Martineau Johnson.

However, rather than sit and weep over past glories, firms have moved on and adapted to the new, post-industrial marketplace.

'We've changed the shape of our practice to accommodate a number of new areas under the corporate umbrella,' he says, singling out private equity as a particular growth area.

'The firm has also strengthened other areas, and we now see our market as banking, education, energy and private client work.'

Therefore, fluidity appears to be the key for survival, the ability to serve new markets that spring up, hydra-like, to take the place of the old guard.

And, corporate gloom aside, there seems to be a healthy amount of work for firms in the immediate west midlands area.

Mr Gwyther is particularly proud of his firm's flourishing private equity team; Mr Poole signals out property, litigation and employment as busy areas; and Andrew Madden - a corporate partner at 20-partner Gateley Wareing - agrees that the market is 'counter-cyclical'.

'Although corporate is relatively quiet, other areas such as dispute resolution and insolvency are making up for it, and despite the fact that the market is not as buoyant as it has been, there is still enough work to go around,' he says.

Gateley Wareing views itself as a midlands-based firm, with offices in Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham, and most of its work comes from the immediate area.

'Birmingham is attracting businesses out of London the way that other cities such as Manchester and Leeds are,' he explains.

'The overheads are lower, the transport infrastructure is better, and London simply is not to everyone's taste.'

The same criteria could be applied to the lawyers who choose to work in Birmingham: all the firms cited here claim to have had no difficulty in luring bright young lawyers and trainees to the midlands - mostly because of the improved quality of life out of the big smoke.

Although Birmingham may not offer the eye-watering salaries of the magic circle, the cost of living is a fraction of that in the City.

The opening of Birmingham's branch of the College of Law in 2001 has meant that more legal talent is attracted to and remains in the area.

'There is certainly no shortage of lawyers in the Birmingham area,' says Mr Madden, pointing out that several firms have recently moved into the marketplace.

Nottingham-based Browne Jacobson, west country firm Bevan Ashford, East Anglia's Mills & Reeve, regional practice Shoosmiths and Worcester firm Harrison Clark are just some of the new kids in town.

With so many lawyers jostling for position, some firms are looking further afield for work.

Mr Collins estimates that the large corporate beasts get 'around 40%' of their work from outside the region; according to Mr Poole, only 30% of Wragge & Co's work is from the local area, and a quarter of its work is from abroad.

Developing the city's international standing is one of the primary aims of AiB; Ms Benussi is determined to work on the issue during her presidency of Birmingham Law Society next year.

'You can easily fly to Birmingham, and we really need to sell the city as an international stopping-off point,' she says.

Mr Gwyther ruefully agrees: 'Birmingham needs to raise its international profile - if you say "Birmingham" to an American lawyer, he thinks you're talking about Alabama.'

Whether the firms have their targets set on sights further afield or closer to home, the city's lawyers seem to co-exist happily.

'A strong market is good for everyone, and if a firm does not get a job itself, then it would prefer it to go to another Birmingham firm rather than one in London or Manchester,' Mr Madden says.

'For example, for every management buy-out in the city, there is a role acting for the bank, the vendor, the buyer and the venture capitalists; four midlands firms get a role, and a critical mass of experience like that will attract other business to the area.'

It seems that in a time of uncertainty in the marketplace, firms in a small legal arena like Birmingham are sticking together to weather the storm.

'We're very proud of our legal community in Birmingham,' says Ms Benussi.

'It's getting stronger and bigger by the day, and the firms have made a pact that they'll club together to improve our image, attract more business, and grow even more.'

Fighting talk indeed.

The Goliaths of the Square Mile should watch out.