Finding an edge

Outside London, firms in the legal heartlands are bowling over recruits with promises of satisfying careers and healthy lifestyles.

Paula Rohan looks at the competitive jobs market

'A law firm is only as good as its lawyers,' Paul Thomas, managing partner of leading Manchester firm Halliwell Landau, is fond of saying.

Some might suggest that Mr Thomas can afford to be smug about his lawyers at the moment; last month he announced the appointment of three high-profile partners and four solicitors, all recruited from rival north-west practice Weightmans.While the defectors serve out their notice period, Weightmans' managing partner Ian Evans predicts that 'the future is still bright', but admits he is 'disappointed that the three partners who are leaving have chosen not to stay and participate in our success'.It is perhaps unsurprising that regional firms face staff losses and are adapting their recruitment strategies.

Neil Braithwaite, managing partner of Newcastle firm Dickinson Dees, says large regional practices are looking for the same quality of staff as the major London players.

'It varies, but at some levels we are looking for something quite specific; someone with particular skills,' he explains.

'At a more junior level, we just want the right type of people, ones who are bright lawyers, with a positive attitude, who will work as part of a team and are well-rounded characters.'But regional firms face a double whammy when it comes to recruitment, he adds: 'When you are talking about the local market, you are looking at competition from other regional firms.

Then you have the people who are seeking to move out of London, and with these you also face competition from firms in other big provincial cities.'While many choose to take on the services of a recruitment agency or advertise in the Gazette, others - such as Halliwell Landau - are adopting a more aggressive approach.

'We have developed a policy and a philosophy aimed towards growth,' senior partner Alex Craig explains.

'[The new recruits] were looking around, and had spoken to two or three firms.

We believe that if good, ambitious people come to us, we should create posts for them, as we did in this case.'This has led Halliwell Landau to increase the number of managerial positions - both for lawyers and its support staff - by recruiting externally and promoting internally.

It has also taken on two barristers as in-house counsel.

Mr Craig says his firm regards headhunting talent as an option, though he warns: 'If you do this to other firms, they will do it to you.

It is more about making sure lawyers are well looked after, especially in the corporate or commercial field; that way you make yourself attractive to small breakaway teams.' The trio of Weightmans partners made up its niche leisure retail practice.The market for legal jobs appears to be thriving in Manchester.

Ann Page, head of legal at the Co-operative Bank, says she is mainly competing with other in-house departments in the area with regard to luring staff, as looking to private practice is 'a bit like comparing apples to oranges'.

But she says it is getting tougher for in-house departments as well as law firms.'I have certainly been seeing more in-house positions advertised in the region, mainly for those with between nought-to-five years' post qualification experience,' she explains.

'A while back you might only have seen two or three advertised, now there will be six, seven or eight.'In-house departments are also prepared to up the stakes to woo the best staff, she adds.

'There has definitely been an increase in what in-house departments are prepared to pay lawyers with nought-to-five years' experience.

I have also noticed that a lot more of them are offering cars or car allowances.'It is not just a Manchester trend.

Bristol-based Burges Salmon is another firm to have seen the need to increase its recruitment efforts.

Last month it created a position of head of legal resources, filled by Lisa Head.

Ms Head says this was in response to advances in the recruitment market and methods of bringing in the best staff.

'There is a rapid increase in the number of legal recruitment Web sites, and there has been a degree of turbulence among [recruitment] agencies due to takeovers and mergers,' she says.'We wanted to take a more dynamic and proactive approach.

A major change has been that some lawyers - especially those brought up with computers, the Internet and technology - are saying: "I won't bother with agencies, I'll just go directly to the firms." We want the best candidates, and some of those will want to deal with agencies, whereas others will want to come to us directly - both options are fine.'Ms Head says the job has become easier in some ways, with a recent change emerging in the calibre of the solicitors' pool overall.

'We have seen a pick-up in the quality of candidates,' she says.

'Last year, there seemed to be a shortage of good-quality people in some specialisms, maybe because the big law firms cut back on the number of trainees they took on when there was a recession.'In the recruitment sphere, Burges Salmon also has a main regional rival, in the form of fellow commercial firm Osborne Clarke, but Ms Head maintains that her firm differs from its Manchester counterparts because it is not worried by a rival's presence in the market.'The two firms are so different in culture, we are perfectly happy for candidates to go to Osborne Clarke for an interview,' she says.

'If they are the type of person to go there rather than here, it is for the best that they find this out.'Charlotte Hurley, recruitment manager at Birmingham firm Wragge & Co, also dismisses other regional firms as a source of competition, but for different reasons.

'In our immediate regional arena, we have moved away from the regional competition onto the national stage in terms of our client spread and work type, which distinguishes us from our local neighbours,' she says.

'We are also twice as large as the next biggest Birmingham-based office, so there is some blue water between what we offer and what they can offer.'Therefore, Ms Hurley and Ms Head are looking to another source of rivalry - the impact of the capital on their recruitment.

'Our main competition is London,' Ms Head says.

'You get the type of recruits from there who could go anywhere, and it is difficult to get them here.'The lure of the biggest smoke of all is a mixed bag of rewards.

The largest international players are obviously based in London, and then there is the higher pay.

Newly qualifieds with City firms can expect to earn as much as 50,000, while those in Leeds, for example, pick up between 23,000 and 27,000 on average if they can get into a leading firm.However, the common view among those who have opted for the regions is that when the extra money is balanced against the cost of living and lower house prices, it often makes financial sense to look outside the capital.Paul Emmett, a partner in the corporate department at Leeds firm Walker Morris, who left City firm Slaughter and May in the early 1990s, says he and his wife were paying half of their joint income on their mortgage, and decided to move to Leeds because they 'did not want to continue working for the principal benefit of the building society'.Tracy Brown, Walker Morris's recruitment manager, says this is not the only bargaining chip regional firms have to play with.

'People want to work in Leeds because it provides a better quality of life,' she says.

'It is the second largest commercial centre outside London, but there is the countryside, it is in the centre of England, commuting is not a problem, the house prices are lower and it is a nicer place to bring up kids.'This is a common theme from regional law firms, all of whom are claiming that better public transport, a developing social and cultural life, and the lesser price of a loaf of bread are the main selling points of their firms.In addition, the proximity of the capital can give some regional firms an advantage, says Ms Hurley.

'Regional firms in other major cities can offer that work/life balance to a degree, but our heart is in the second capital with the closest links to London by road and rail, so we often win out on that basis.'Dickinson Dees' Mr Braithwaite says firms in the know will not only advertise the benefits of living in their city, but make an effort to smooth the transition for those moving out of the capital.

'We get people from all over, but there is a steady stream from London,' he says.

'We offer relocation packages which are flexible, reflecting the individual's circumstances.

This eases the process and makes a move more attractive, although the main bonus will still be the quality of work, the type of firm we are, and living in the north-east.'Burges Salmon's senior partner, Richard Wynn-Jones, has a catchphrase to rival Mr Thomas's: 'Work is an activity, and not a location.' And with provincial cities and their law firms developing and offering work and a cosmopolitan lifestyle to rival that of London, it seems the regions could become ever more appealing - and the battle for talent even more fierce.