Top 100 firm Ward Hadaway has announced it will become the latest legal business to open an office in central Birmingham. The firm’s expansion – its first south of its three northern strongholds – continues the trend in recent weeks of moves into the area in and around the city’s Colmore Row.
Ward Hadaway has outlined ambitions to double turnover in the next 10 years and is also in talks to merge with Teesside firm The Endeavour Partnership. It already operates from Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle and will now take up space in Birmingham’s newly-refurbished Chamberlain Square for its first new office opening in more than a decade.
Managing partner Steven Petrie said: ‘When I announced our ambitious growth plans, we knew that expanding geographically was going to be a key part of our strategy. Birmingham is a thriving legal hub, home to an active business community. Its strong industrial heritage, reputation for technological innovation and robust service sector align with the challenges and opportunities we are accustomed to.’
Petrie added there had been a surge in demand for commercial legal services in the West Midlands as companies in the region seek to grow. The firm has so far appointed nine lawyers and has plans to grow headcount to around 30 people in the next 24 months.
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The firm be will a close neighbour of FBC Manby Bowdler, which has opened an office in Bennetts Hill in Birmingham after establishing a network of sites across the West Midlands and Shropshire.
The move into Birmingham is part of a plan to double the firm’s size in 18 months, following the securing of a £30m investment last October from private equity house Horizon Capital. FBC Manby Bowdler is the founding firm of Horizon’s Adeptio Law Group, which will be a network of practices operating under their own identity but as part of a wider network.
Chief executive Neil Lloyd said: ‘The West Midlands Combined Authority has been instrumental in catalysing Birmingham’s economic transformation in recent years and we are excited to be a part of it.’ The firm already has two Wolverhampton offices and bases in Knowle, Shrewsbury, Telford, Bridgnorth, Church Stretton and Redditch.
Meanwhile, Michael Cummins Employment Solicitors will add to its existing East Midlands office with a Birmingham site – the latest in what is planned to be a series of city expansions.
‘Opening our new office in the business and legal heart of Birmingham is designed to power up our ambitious plans to grow in the West Midlands and beyond,’ said owner Michael Cummins. ‘Many of our team live in the West Midlands – and I was originally from Birmingham and went to school and worked in the city – so having a Colmore Row office is good for them and good for the current and future clients we intend to attract.’
Cummins, a former partner with Gateley and Freeths, started the specialist firm in 2022 after selling his previous company Cummins Solicitors to the listed consolidator Knights.
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