In the latest of our regional profiles, Paula Rohan reports on booming Birmingham, and on pages 26 and 27 looks at chambers in the city and firms elsewhere in the West Midlands.


Sue Lewis, head of Eversheds' Birmingham office, arrived in the city in 1981 as a 'penniless student' - and never left. Over the years, she has seen the region develop and witnessed a considerable growth in work.


'When I first moved here, there were very few people who lived in the city centre, but now there are residential developments springing up everywhere,' she says. 'People can live over the shops in the city centre, which they could never do before.'


Residential development is one area where the national firm is busy, along with providing advice on other regeneration projects, but Ms Lewis says the region is also flourishing across the board. 'The market conditions have been changing,' she explains. 'If London gets busy, it filters out to the rest of the country.'


She adds: 'We get a lot of work from the local economy but we also look after a lot of national and international clients - we try and get the best of both worlds, so if the local market is going through a difficult time, we have a cushion.'


Philip White, a recruitment consultant at Chadwick Nott, maintains this is typical of larger firms in the area. 'In the last five years, large firms have been looking outside of the Midlands market, but recently they have also been targeting business that traditionally would have gone to London,' he says. 'They are saying: "We can do the work for you for 30% less but we still have the same skill base."'


Ian Forrest, a partner at Hammonds, agrees that things are going well in the area. 'Our office is busy in general, with a lot of corporate and property work,' he says. 'We have also seen more mergers and acquisitions work than we did 12 months ago, and are giving more advice on tax and pensions.' In fact, Hammonds recently set up a tax team to cope with the demand and is also bringing in a lot of international tax work.


Malcolm Fowler, Law Society Council member for Birmingham and a criminal law partner at Jonas Roy Bloom, reckons that commercial work is 'booming'. He says: 'It's a healthy and vigorous profession here at the moment.' His firm has a mix of crime and personal injury, which he admits is highly competitive: 'Volume is the name of the game.'


He says he is also referring more matters to expert employment lawyers, which is another growing area. 'We don't paddle our own canoe, we go to a specialist,' he says. Education law is also becoming more popular in the region, he says, but it is a niche area with only a few practices. 'They do it well, though, and for significant rewards.'


Birmingham is home to a 'big five' of heavyweight corporate players, namely Eversheds, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, Wragge & Co, Pinsent Masons and Hammonds.


But more and more small and medium-sized firms are making a splash in the Birmingham market. Mr White lists the top 'smaller fish' as including Shakespeares, Martineau Johnson, Putsmans, Needham & Jones, Cobbetts, Gateley Wareing, Mills & Reeve, Clarke Willmott, Bevan Brittan, Browne Jacobson and Shoosmiths. This has meant the legal market has turned into a 'tale of two tiers', he says.


However, he questions whether the number of firms is sustainable. 'All these firms are fighting it out. I can't see how they are all going to achieve their objectives because there is not enough work in the market for all of them.' He adds: 'Birmingham is now the most interesting legal market outside of London; there is the most potential for scraps between firms.'


Joel Kordan, head of Shoosmiths' Birmingham office, which opened in 2003, agrees that the market is packed. He says: 'It's an incredibly competitive market, and things are getting even more crowded, with new firms - such as Leicester's Harvey Ingram and Bristol's Clarke Willmott - coming in all the time.'


But says the second tier of firms is getting good at picking up work from the 'big five', though they are not interested in just 'picking up the crumbs from the giant's table'.


Shoosmiths originally opened as a property boutique, but Mr Kordan says it will have grown to a full service office by August. DaimlerChrysler is one of the biggest clients serviced by the Birmingham office.


East Anglia's Mills & Reeve is another firm based outside the area that has gained a foothold. It has had a presence in the city for eight years but is now expanding, and has set up premises in Colmore Row, the business district where other prominent law firms are based.


Partner Guy Hinchley says the firm decided to make the investment because of Birmingham's booming economy. Furthermore, it does a lot of education work, and there are many universities in the West Midlands. 'We offer a full service and are still building up our practice in Birmingham,' he says. 'Growth has been very good, particularly in the last year.'


He is confident that Mills & Reeve can do well in an increasingly competitive local market, but says he concurs with Mr White that the current status quo cannot remain. 'In the last year, some firms had good growth, but for others it was much a flatter performance,' he notes. 'It's clear that some are struggling but I don't think it's down to the strength of the local economy or lack of investment, I think it's just individual problems within the firms.'


Ms Lewis agrees that there is an expanding legal landscape in Birmingham, but doubts that the 'big five' will face any threat from their smaller rivals. 'I don't see the medium-sized firms as a threat,' she says. 'Some well-known names have moved in, and in some areas we do the same type of work, so I suppose they are kind of competitors, but we have a lot of work on.'


Mr White suggests that although Birmingham firms may be stealing work from London, firms in the capital are still getting most of the best lawyers. 'We are finding it increasingly difficult to find lawyers with the right skills locally because they do tend to go to London,' he says. There is a particular shortage for work in corporate tax, pensions, specialist banking, and intellectual property. Mr Hinchley says Mills & Reeve has also had trouble getting hold of planning lawyers.


But Mr White thinks solicitors should reconsider. 'The pay is not as good as in London, although it is as good as anywhere else outside the capital and a partner in Birmingham can earn as much as one in London,' he says. 'Associates do earn less - but then the cost of living is considerably less.'


Mr Forrest says there are other advantages: 'The quality of work is very good; there is a big professional services community here and people can come and have an interesting career. There is also the quality of life - some people thrive in London but others want to be away from it. Here, you are just 20 or 30 minutes from the countryside.'


Ms Lewis agrees. 'There are great sports and shopping facilities, and great restaurants and theatres.' She has no regrets about remaining in Birmingham after her stint as a student, she says.


Mr Kordan sums up the feel of the city. 'Birmingham is a village,' he says. 'That sounds strange when you look at how the conurbation is spreading, stretching out to Solihull, and northwards to Wolverhampton. There are two or three million people living here. But in the legal market, everyone knows what's going on. That doesn't mean it's cosy. It's competitive - you can run, but you can't hide.'


Paula Rohan is a freelance journalist