Cut-throat crusadersNottingham has long put its textile mills and coal pits behind it and fashioned a new image as a legal mecca.

But as victoria maccallum discovered, fierce competition is the name of the gameRobbing the rich to give to the poor may be an attitude beloved of Nottingham's most famous export Robin Hood, but whether the city's bustling and ever-growing band of merry lawyers would agree is perhaps less certain.

Much has changed in this appealing and vibrant city over the years: Nottingham's central Market Square is filled with chic wine bars rather than the traditional weekly livestock markets; DH Lawrence's beloved coal pits have given way to 21st century call centres and service providers, and any taking from the rich is more likely to take place in boardrooms rather than on highways.Although the city retains an element of its market town charm - for example, the major law firms are based on or around the quaintly named Maid Marian Way - Nottingham lawyers are keen to dispel the small town myth.

'Nottingham has lost its cosiness,' says Richard Nelson, managing partner of 35-partner leading Nottingham firm Nelsons.

'It's become a much sharper and more competitive market since the late 1980s, when Leicester and Nottingham battled it out over who was going to lead the East Midlands.'This competitiveness is not only acknowledged by all the firms, but seemingly relished.

Ron Birkett, partner in niche four-partner crime specialists Cartwright King and president of the Nottinghamshire Law Society, describes the scene as 'cut-throat'.

He adds: 'Even with crime, when you're not in the big commercial arena, it's still incredibly competitive.'He puts the attitude down to Nottingham's size: 'It's not small enough to be cosy and friendly as a lot of small satellite towns are, such as Mansfield or Worksop.

It's also bursting with law firms which obviously sharpens competition - when I arrived 30 years ago, people were saying there were too many firms around, and that's still the case.' There are now almost 100 firms in central Nottingham.

Bursting it may be, but there seems to be no real shortage of work around.

As with so many cities, where traditional areas of work have dried up more areas have sprung up, Hydra-like, to take their place.

Duncan James, head of corporate at Berryman Shacklock, is philosophical about the changing legal market.

'Yes, industries such as textiles and printing have collapsed recently, but despite this it's essentially a buoyant market - there are huge amounts of investment coming into the area, as you can see from the nearby Sherwood and Worksop business parks which are pretty much full.'Derek Bambury, managing partner of top East Midlands firm Browne Jacobson, also has a positive outlook.

'Historically, when coming into this area, you would expect to see pit shafts and traditional metal bashing factories,' he says.

'Now, of course, manufacturing has receded drastically, as it has throughout the Midlands, but its place has been taken by other work.

At the moment, this is a good place to do business - there's a real swing in the step of professionals here.' Although the East Midlands in general has a dearth of large public limited companies - with the exception of the monster Boots Pharmaceuticals - there are enough small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and service providers to provide grist for the legal mill.

Service companies such as Experian - which provides information for credit card companies - and credit card company Capital One have moved to Nottingham in the past few years, creating thousands of jobs and more work for law firms.

However, although he admits that it was an achievement for Nottingham to attract these companies, Karl Jansen, head of corporate finance at Nottingham firm Freethcartwright, sees a large part of the city's work coming from another source.

'Professional services have boomed recently,' he says, citing the fact that all the top five accountancy firms - PricewaterhouseCoopers, Arthur Anderson, Deloitte & Touche, KPMG and Ernst & Young - have recently moved into Nottingham, opening up a whole new dimension of corporate work.

'It's not only accountancy firms who have moved here recently,' he says.

'We've got a significant number of venture capitalists, and most of the banks have a commercial presence here too - it all adds up to a very lively market.' The arrival of the accountancy firms, however, has greater significance than a mere boost to Nottingham's corporate scene - many have moved to Nottingham from nearby Leicester, striking another blow in the battle for supremacy of the East Midlands business scene.

'The main problem that the East Midlands has is that there's no one definite centre,' says Duncan James.

'With the West Midlands, Birmingham is very much the focus, and it's the same with Leeds and Yorkshire - whereas here you have Nottingham, Derby and Leicester all competing.' Karl Jansen agrees.

'We would call ourselves an East Midlands practice because so much of our work comes from outside Nottingham, but the East Midlands is really three very different centres.

More importantly for us, the three centres are traditionally very parochial and have always tended to give work to local firms - Derby companies simply wouldn't come to Nottingham for advice, and Leicester firms are more likely to go to Birmingham rather than Nottingham.'This is arguably a national trend, as Richard Nelson points out: 'Bristol boys stick together - people like doing business with people they went to school with.' It is a tradition that is potentially damaging to the continuing growth of the legal scene in Nottingham.'Until people sit up and realise that Nottingham is the financial, professional and investment heart of the East Midlands, there will continue to be a huge amount of diversity and fracturing of the market,' says Duncan James.

However, he is cautiously optimistic.

'We're slowly stripping a lot of the work away from Derby, save one or two big commercial clients, and Nottingham is gradually becoming a real point of gravitation.' Whilst agreeing with the traditional tri-centred split - 'it's certainly multi-centred, you need only to look at Chambers legal directory over the years to see that they could never decide what the capital was' - Derek Bambury also thinks that the times are changing.'In the past couple of years, Nottingham has genuinely emerged as the capital of the region,' he says.

'You can see from the fact that the major accountants have gravitated here.

The financial community, where it has a base in the East Midlands, is based here.'So if one traditional rivalry appears to be on the wane, what about London, the bugbear of ambitious regional practices? The attitude appears to be realistic yet philosophical.'We're not going to offer the same package as a big corporate firm, and there's no point in pretending otherwise,' says Richard Nelson.

'There are certain areas that we simply don't have big enough teams to deal with.

For example, if two multi-billion pound companies are merging, they're not going to come to Nottingham - but at the same time we can offer a real breadth of experience and specialised knowledge, which is proving a very successful formula.'Mr Bambury agrees.

'In a certain area of high-value work, there are interests that need to be reassured, and they will only be reassured by going to a magic circle firm; so yes, there is an area of work that will always go to London.' A similar attitude applies to the lure of the bright lights and big salaries that tempt young solicitors down south.

'We can't compete with the ridiculous salaries that are being offered by the big firms,' admits Mr James.

'It all depends on what people want out of life - if you want to get really involved with something and become totally committed to a project as you would here, or if you're happy to be led by the nose in a larger firm.'The continued growth of Nottingham's legal scene, perhaps displayed best of all by the rise of Nottingham Law School, and the quality of work the city enjoys, seems to be testament to the subtle shift of the East Midlands power base, and Nottingham's rosy prospects for the future.

Maybe not exactly robbing the rich to give to the poor, but Robin the entrepreneur would doubtless have given his approval to the ambitions and drive of this city's lawyers.