Campaign: Yokshire city billed as 'UK's second legal centre'

Lawyers in Leeds are to launch a high-profile joint marketing campaign in a bid to attract national and international corporate clients to the Yorkshire city.


National firms Pinsent Masons and DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, together with local firm Lupton Fawcett, are at the forefront of the promotional drive, dubbed 'Leeds Legal'.


The campaign will be launched officially next month at a reception in the Houses of Parliament hosted by UKTI, the government agency that promotes international trade.


It will focus on specialist areas of legal advice the city has to offer, such as IT, energy, competition, property and intellectual property.


The Leeds Law Society and the Law Society's regional office for Yorkshire have backed the move, which is also intended to help firms recruit high-quality staff.


Nigel McClea, managing partner of Pinsents' Leeds office, said: 'In Leeds we would style ourselves as the arguably the second legal centre in the UK after London. Traditionally we have tended to hunt individually rather than in packs when persuading the marketplace that we are good lawyers. If you put it together, you get a very strong offer.'


He added that the campaign would target potential clients in major cities in Europe that, like Leeds, are not the capitals of their country.


Deborah Green, the Law Society's Yorkshire regional manager, said: 'The concept behind Leeds Legal is simple - we're promoting world-class legal advice from a world-class city.'