Thoughtraditional local industries have gone, law firms outside Birmingham are thriving, says Paula Rohan

Richard Cliff feels he is in the minority in being 'one of the only old buggers left' in his firm, but he is not lamenting the fact, as he is convinced that bringing in new blood is the key to achieving success in the West Midlands.


Firms are reporting good turnovers this year, and Mr Cliff, a partner at Cradley Heath and Halesowen firm George Green & Co, puts his firm's strong performance in its main fields of company and commercial, dispute resolution, employment and property down to new team members.


'We've had a couple of intense years and it's still going very fast at the moment,' he says. 'One or two partners left and we head-hunted a few specialist partners, and that has all had an impact. There are only a few old buggers like me left now, but we have a lot of young, aggressive and adventurous types to drive things on.'


While Birmingham - as the UK's second city - dominates the West Midlands, the region has other distinct legal centres, including Wolverhampton, Coventry and Leamington Spa. Mr Cliff says the area is experiencing a buoyant period, and any notion of firms outside the big cities dealing only with local people and businesses is misconceived: his firm has international clients and has dealt with £100 million-worth of transactions this year alone.


However, he says it is no bad thing to focus on opportunities in the locality. 'We get the majority of our work from within a 20-mile radius,' he says. George Green & Co recently recruited a strategic director to 'give focus to our outlook'.


Ian White, managing partner at Knight & Sons in Newcastle-under-Lyme, agrees that there are good local opportunities. The firm's client base has changed drastically since it was founded in 1767. 'It's true that the potteries, foundries and mines have largely gone, along with 90% of the jobs that those industries provided,' he says. 'But the natural resources beneath the ground that fed those industries are still there. There is still a technical and scientific centre for mining, so whereas historically we acted for mine owners, we now act for big-name mineral owners such as Hanson Aggregates, Tarmac and WBB.' However, his firm also has national companies such as Tussauds Group and Prudential on its client list.


One difficulty that firms near Birmingham have is recruitment. Towns like Coventry and Wolver-hampton are competing not just with their powerful neighbour, but also with the dazzling lights of London. Staffordshire-based sole principal Christopher Clark, Law Society Council member for Staffordshire and Wolverhampton, says there can be problems, as at the end of the day, 'people would rather go to Birmingham and get better salaries'.


Knight & Sons partner Richard Lashmore agrees. 'We've had our problems with recruitment and retention,' he admits. 'Getting the right skilled support staff is both a problem for us and the region generally. The poor facilities and infrastructure are unattractive to outsiders, too.'


Government body Advantage West Midlands is working to regenerate the economy and improve roads and buildings; Stoke-on-Trent firm Kent Jones & Done (KJD) is on its panel of advisers. KJD partner Michael Servian argues that candidates and clients are increasingly appreciating what smaller towns - and firms - in the West Midlands have to offer.


'KJD has attracted first-class personnel who prefer a hands-on approach to their careers, and a work/home mix that might be less available in larger firms in the metropolitan centres,' he explains. 'Indeed, many of KJD's senior personnel have been drawn out of that environment in Birmingham, Manchester and even London, including the firm's finance director, who formerly practised in a "big four" accountancy firm in Birmingham.'


Mr Cliff says there is also the bonus that talented solicitors are often tempted to move from large cities because 'there they were a small fish in a very big pond; here they are a big fish in a smaller pond'.


Mr Servian boasts that the quality of work offered by firms operating in smaller towns in the region cannot be beaten, and this is also tempting applicants; KJD clients are a mix of local, regional and national, and it offers advice on corporate finance, commercial law, intellectual property, employment, property, development work, planning and dispute resolution services.


'The quality of KJD's client base locally, regionally and indeed nationally therefore leads us to believe that the [service] the firm is offering is highly competitive,' he says. 'Beyond that, it has often been reported that corporates based in the metropolitan centres are alive to the possibility of obtaining reasonable prices and partner-led advice from medium-sized provincial commercial law firms for whom their work is genuinely important, perhaps using the medium-sized firms for advice in particular fields or up to certain transaction values. Our client base and work bear out this trend.'


So do firms in the region feel overshadowed by their Birmingham counterparts? Both Mr Servian and Mr Clark deny that this is the case. 'We definitely do not feel in the shadow of Birmingham,' Mr Clark says. 'And we do not feel in the shadow of London either. For one thing the region has the biggest barristers' chambers in the country [No5 Chambers], so people know they don't have to rush off to London for specialist legal advice.'


Furthermore, he says there is a buoyant market in the area, with lots of growth in Staffordshire in particular due to the presence of wealthy landowners. However, he admits that many private clients such as local authorities still go to Birmingham because the firms there are bigger. 'But big is not necessarily beautiful,' he maintains.


It seems that solicitors working in the West Midlands are optimistic about the future, but Mr Cliff still puts it down to the staff if they want to compete with the bigger cities. 'You've got to be ambitious, hungry and want to do the work,' he says.