Specialists bridge the divide

With local competition fierce, specialists are all the rage in Bristol, discovers Sue Allen

As Bristol firm Osborne Clarke heads abroad to forge international mergers, and Burges Salmon sits tight with a view to being a national firm with a single office centre, smaller firms in the area have their own ideas about where their futures lie.

Since becoming managing partner of Clarke Willmott & Clarke in May 1999, David Sedgwick has turned the firm from a collection of 23, mostly small, high-street offices into what he says is a regional commercial firm.

He says his vision differs from that of some other Bristol firms in that they have 'no current plans' to compete nationally, but aim to service the south-west commercial community.

Julian Kinsey, a partner at Bond Pearce, also sees the Bristol office as the key to its strategic development into 'a leading commercial firm across the south of England, excluding London'.

The firm already has offices in Plymouth, Exeter and Southampton.

Client demand has also prompted it to have a presence in Leeds and London.

Mr Kinsey says the firm has no 'flags on maps' plans for further expansion, but he adds: 'In future, if we decided we wanted to be part of a national firm, or were approached by a northern-based firm which wanted a southern base, we would like to be seen as attractive.'

However, for other firms, the lure of local and national dominance has taken a more specialism-based tack.

Christopher Eskell, managing partner of Cartwrights - which has a strong national client base within the food and retail sectors and a country-wide reputation for licensing work - says because Bristol is 'under plc'd' and lacks the 'industrial hinterland' of areas such as Birmingham and Leeds, its law firms were ahead of most of the country in focusing on specialist sectors and areas where they could compete nationally.

'Bristol is a good base because it has good transport links and because you can recruit top-quality people who want to move into the area,' he adds.

Laytons - which also has offices in Surrey, Manchester and London - sees itself as a full service commercial firm within Bristol but a national player in construction.

Jane Ryland, a construction partner at Laytons, says that although her firm occasionally find itself on the other side of local firms like Burges Salmon, Masons and Beachcroft Wansbroughs, more frequently on the other side are the northern offices of Eversheds, Addleshaw Booth & Co in Manchester and Hammond Suddards Edge in Leeds.

Ms Ryland adds that having a national reputation for construction work, but being based in Bristol, means her firm attracts a huge amount of work from the local area.

'Our local catchment area goes as far south as Devon and Cornwall, it extends to Reading and as far as south Wales, Gloucester and Birmingham.'

So, while Bristol has proved a springboard for firms wishing to break out of the south-west, so far it has proved less attractive for firms moving into the area.

Richard Tyler, managing partner of City-based CMS Cameron McKenna, says his firm opened in Bristol ten years ago on the back of its relationship with Lloyds Bank's retail division when it relocated to the city.

Alongside that, the firm had opportunities in the insurance and reinsurance market through existing contacts.

Mr Tyler adds that the recent decision to open a corporate practice in Bristol came on the back of key personnel wishing to move to the area and because it was in line with the firm's overall strategy.

But he is 'realistic' about the Bristol office's future.

'Like any market, there are firms in Bristol with well-established, long-standing links and high-quality operations.

If you want to succeed there you have to provide something different and altogether better and it is hard to build up those connections.

In the early days we were client driven and now we are sticking to the things that we are good at.'