Northern lights

THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES AND DIVERSIFICATION HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE REBIRTH OF MANCHESTER AS A BOOMING BUSINESS CENTRE.

NOW THE CITY STRIVES TO HANG ONTO WORK, SAYS VICTORIA MACCALLUM

CITY FOCUS: MANCHESTER

Sport's ability to rejuvenate, reinvigorate and re-energise is widely known, and its effects can apply as much to cities as to the human body.

Cardiff discovered a new life after the opening of its Millennium stadium; Sydney once more became the focus of world attention following the 2000 Olympic Games; and South Korea underwent a public relations transformation after the football World Cup last year.

Manchester is another city that has benefited hugely from sport on the world stage - hosting the Commonwealth Games last year put large amounts of money into the city's transport and tourist industries.

Manchester City football club will move into the stadium built for the games this year, and local rival United is even more of a cash cow for the city.

The image Manchester now projects to the world - cosmopolitan, forward looking and a consumer's paradise - is also in large part the result of the IRA bomb which devastated the city centre in 1996 and led to a mammoth redevelopment and regeneration project which is still on-going today.

Therefore, in the great tradition of former manufacturing giants across the country, the city is in the throes of reinventing itself, and the legal scene seems to have followed a similar course in the past few years.

'There has been a dramatic change in the legal marketplace over the last six to eight years,' says Michael Shaw, managing partner of 55-partner Cobbetts.

'In the 90s, Manchester was an immature legal market and not really a dominant commercial centre compared to Leeds and Birmingham - it was ravaged by the recession and didn't have any really large firms to encourage competition.'

The entry into the market of big firms from Leeds such as DLA (Dibb Lupton Broomhead as was snapped up Manchester firm Alsop Wilkinson), Eversheds (which merged with Alexander Tatham) and Addleshaw Booth & Co (Booth & Co joined forces with Addleshaw Sons & Latham) upped the game considerably, and Mr Shaw has them to thank for the success of his own firm, which is itself currently in merger talks with Birmingham's Lee Crowder.

'The migration of those three big firms over here acted as a catalyst, and the market became more competitive, more polarised and generally healthier,' he says.

These three firms are still generally considered to be the strongest corporate practices in the city - a contention Halliwell Landau, for one, would argue with - and most large-scale corporate transactions in the area will have two out of the three involved.

Tim Hamilton, a corporate partner at Addleshaws, lists recent deals the firm has been involved in: advising Kingfisher on the sale of Time Retail Finance for 149 million; acting for retailer JJB Sport in its 240 million bid for TJ Hughes; acting on MyTravel's 30 million disposal of its US business Holiday Break.

But despite these figures, he admits that the corporate market is 'patchy'.

'There's a reasonable amount of work around, but not as much as a year ago,' he says.

'No one has an appetite for initial public offerings or raising money on the private market any more.'

Although most corporate lawyers agree that the work has fallen off, the feeling is that the situation in the north-west is not as bad as it is in London's Square Mile.

'If a huge international corporate client is drying up, it's the big London firms that will feel the knock-on effect, because up here even the best corporate firms are mostly handling mid-tier work,' explains Joy Kingsley, managing partner of Pannone & Partners.

Despite the fact that Pannones has recently taken a client off a magic circle firm, and counts national institutions such as the Bank of England as clients, she admits that there is a certain type of work which will never leave London.

'For large-scale international work, the investment banks will often insist on the client using a magic circle firm, even if the client is happy to use a regional player for cost purposes, if nothing else,' she says.

The key to survival for Manchester firms seems to be knowing limits and diversifying accordingly.

Graham Small, a partner at 16-partner Rowe Cohen, admits that taking work from London firms is a 'difficult nut to crack'.

He says: 'We may snap at the heels of the big London players, but firms such as Addleshaws, which is making a reasonable fist of it from its London office, are leading the way and carrying the banner for quality Manchester firms.' He adds that the north-west firms that have moved onto a more national level - Halliwells has also expanded into London, while Addleshaws is currently in merger talks with City firm Theodore Goddard - have left behind a substantial tranche of work, which is being picked up by the mid-market firms such as Rowe Cohen.

In fact, there are several firms in Manchester in this bracket, such as Betesh Fox & Co, DWF, Davis Blank Furniss, Fox Brooks Marshall, JMW, Kuit Steinart Levy, Linder Myers, and Wacks Caller.

Along with national organisations such as the Police Superintendents Association and the Federation of Small Businesses, Rowe Cohen also acts for claims management company The Accident Group, and many local small to medium-sized businesses.

Halliwells, one of the north-west's biggest regional players, completed a 108 million deal in January, advising Maple Leaf Foods on the sale of its bakery operations to Canada Bread.

However, managing partner Paul Thomas agrees that the corporate market is tough at the moment and more work comes from the mid-market level.

'We tend to advise smaller AIM or FTSE 350 companies where there is still some activity.

For example, last year we completed 145 deals of 500,000 plus, which is the same number as the previous year but of less value.'

Despite this, Halliwells had its most successful year last year with a turnover of 30 million - the key to survival, therefore, appears to be diversification.

Halliwells lists the classic economic downturn trinity of property, insolvency and litigation as faring particularly well.

Pannones has always been broadly based, best known for its high-profile private client department and especially its personal injury/medical work (for example, it acted for the conjoined baby twins last year) but the firm has been building its corporate side and recently moved into areas as diverse as licensing, defendant insurance litigation and French property.

Pannones is not the only big personal injury name in the city, with Amelans, Alexander Harris, and Donns other major players in the field.

Sports law is an area that, given Manchester's pedigree, should be fertile ground for enterprising lawyers, and Addleshaws - an official sponsor of the Commonwealth Games on an innovative fees for sponsorship deal - is building a big reputation in the field, alongside James Chapman & Co, a defendant insurance practice which also acts for Manchester United and has built up a top sports practice of its own on the back of it, spreading far beyond football.

Chapmans' senior partner, Maurice Watkins, is a leading light among the country's sports lawyers, and a United director to boot with a reputed shareholding in the club that would make him rich should anyone ever succeed in mounting a takeover.

George Davies is another Manchester practice well known for its sports work, and especially acting for the Professional Footballers Association, while Hammonds too has a big sports reputation, although it arguably comes more out of its London and Birmingham offices than the Manchester outpost.

Addleshaws represents sporting luminaries such as motorbike champion Carl Fogarty in his new superbike racing team project, and brands including Adidas.

Partner James Whittaker says the firm got a 'phenomenal' amount of work from its involvement with the Commonwealth Games.

'Although the market is not booming at the moment, with the collapse of ITV Digital last year and the ensuing loss of revenue for many football clubs, clubs are always looking for ways to balance their books and find income from other sources.' Celtic and West Ham United are among the firm's clients, along with Manchester United for some corporate matters.

Football clubs aside, there are a number of other businesses in the north-west that keep Manchester firms well supplied with work.

'Contrary to public perception, some of the traditional manufacturing industries don't do badly at all,' according to Ms Kingsley, who mentions clothing manufacturers such as Joe Bloggs, which is still based in the area.

'The city is also becoming a centre for professional services - for example, the Royal Bank of Scotland has recently moved into the area, employing 2,500 people.' The problem with this is, of course, trying to keep the businesses in the area and stop the flow of work down to London.

Fran Eccles, the executive director of Manchester Law Society, is fighting hard to keep work in the city, and projects include pro.Manchester, a networking association for professional businesses.

'Our aim is to sell Manchester on a regional, national and international level, and to keep as much work as possible from moving out of the area,' she explains.

The initiative appears to be working, with Mr Shaw mentioning the technology businesses which have moved in to fill the void left by the manufacturing industries.

He also maintains that the destruction caused by the IRA in 1996 was, from one point of view, a step forward for the city.

'The IRA bomb was, in a way, a very good thing for Manchester as it's led to a huge regeneration of the city centre,' he says.

And regeneration, with its cranes, building sites and armies of labourers, is payday for lawyers.

Therefore, it is unsurprising to hear that 'property is booming', according to Addleshaws property partner Richard Wheeldon.

'The regeneration of east Manchester, for example, is a huge ongoing project,' he says.

Mr Wheeldon moved from Addleshaws' Leeds office a few years ago, and although he maintains that Manchester has not yet wrested the title of 'legal capital of the north' from Leeds, it has come a long way in the last decade.

He says: 'Manchester is now a larger commercial centre than Leeds, and as a result there is more work around,' he said 'Leeds' legal community was pretty well saturated, whereas in Manchester there is a feeling that it can grow further because, simply, we have the work here.'

Manchester firms may have the work, but they also have that hoary old regional clich, quality of life.

Despite its reputation in the market, Mr Thomas stresses that Halliwells is a mile away from the sweatshops of some London practices, although - perhaps tellingly - he adds the firm's billing target is a not inconsiderable 1,500 hours.

His attitude is that 'if the work is there, we expect it to get done'.

A typically Mancunian combination, therefore: ambition and commercial savvy wrapped up in northern geniality.

Big players take on London aristocrats at their own game

MANCHESTER'S BARRISTERS ARE MUSCLING IN ON COMMERCIAL WORK, DISCOVERS VICTORIA MACCALLUM

Manchester's bar has been the quiet success story of the north-west.

Where law firms have rebranded and repositioned themselves, growing, shrinking and merging, Manchester's barristers have simply got on with the job of establishing themselves as arguably the strongest bar outside London.

With enough work flowing through the city to support 23 chambers and around 500 barristers, the north-west's barristers are understandably in bullish mood.

'We have an absolutely thriving scene up here, with commercial work to rival anything in London,' says Bill Brown, senior clerk at 59 member-strong Kings Chambers.

The reasons for this are partly historical and partly geographic, according to Stephen Grime QC, head of chambers at 50-member Deans Chambers.

'Manchester is sufficiently far enough away from London to have our own critical mass; but traditionally the city has always been a strong commercial centre which as a result has produced work.'

Neil Berragan, chancery and commercial barrister at Kings Chambers, agrees: 'The northern circuit around Manchester and Liverpool has always been healthy, partly because we've been able to draw in work from cities such as Birmingham and Leeds.'

The mercantile courts sitting in both Manchester and Leeds put a substantial amount of work the barristers' way - indeed, enough to arouse the interest of competitors from London.

'About three or four years ago, there was a quietly determined push from some of the major London sets to come up here and sell themselves to the major solicitors - now, it's very common to find yourself competing with London barristers for work in your own backyard,' says Mr Berragan.

Matthew Gibbons, senior clerk at Deans Court, agrees.

'We don't really want to advertise the fact that we have a lot of work on, for fear of attracting London chambers who aren't so busy and decide to come up here and get some.'

Most sets see their market as stretching far beyond the northern circuit, and their main rivals as the London sets.

'There are some extremely good barristers up here, and getting down to the courts in London is easy,' says Mr Grime.

'The only problem we have competing with London is one of perception - people often assume that sets in London will tend to be bigger and better.'

Mr Brown agrees that this is often a problem, but despite this, his set still manages to wrest work from the London chambers, and in any week it has five or six barristers in London courts.

'If the north-west decided to stage a mass boycott of our chambers, we would still survive,' claims Mr Brown.

The set is instructed by clients from places as diverse as Cornwall to Berwick-upon-Tweed, and some of its recent big cases include the de-commissioning of a nuclear power plant in north Wales and a planning inquiry for several service stations on the M25.

One of the reasons for this is the set's specialist planning department, the largest outside London; the general view is that the market is tougher for chancery and commercial work.

'The figures from the Commercial Court in London show a massive drop in case numbers, and that trend is also being repeated in Manchester,' says Mr Berragan.

'It shows the success of the Civil Procedure Rules, which aimed to avoid matters going to trial, but it has reduced the traditional work for barristers.' All is not lost, he stresses, as barristers tend to become involved at an earlier stage, drafting letters of claim and advising on the initial merits of the case.

Mr Grime sees the main challenge for the provincial bar coming from the fall in publicly funded work, which he predicts will affect the regions more than London.

He says: 'Traditionally, most commercial and privately funded work has gone to London sets, whereas most publicly funded cases end up here.' Despite the slimming down of publicly funded work, Mr Grime's set still pulls in high- profile cases, such as the successful defence of Leeds footballer Jonathan Woodgate last year in his trial for assault.

The future for the barristers of Manchester seems to be reasonably healthy, assuming they survive the forthcoming battles over public funding, court reforms and, of course, their image problem.

As Mr Brown says: 'There is a belief that if you travel north, everyone is wearing clogs and has woad on their faces'.