The relegation of Leeds United has depressed many lawyers in the city.

but a strong property market and realigning corporate sector have boosted the big firms, reports Jeremy Fleming

One thing unites the commercial lawyers of Leeds at the moment in despair - the recent relegation of the city's football club from the Premiership.

Former Leeds director Peter McCormick, senior partner of McCormicks, who continues to do a lot of work for the club after its recent buy-out, says 'the city is in mourning'.

Malcolm Simpson, the managing partner of Leeds firm Walker Morris, cannot hide his feelings - despite having the boon of helping to act for the buy-out team and having ongoing instructions from it.

He says: 'Certainly, it's very disappointing for everyone in Leeds, but we've been there before and they'll come back - they'll bounce back.'

Neil McLean, managing partner of DLA's Leeds office - which acted for the club in the sale to the new consortium and in negotiations with bondholders and other creditors - says: 'This is a major international city and whether you are a fan or not, it's sad to see a club that was doing so well two years ago fall so quickly.

It's a tragedy - but these things happen in sport.'

Nigel McClea, Pinsents' recently elected managing partner in Leeds, is similarly disappointed, but like his counterparts at other firms, sees opportunities for the club, despite its current depressed position.

He says: 'We act for another regional football club, and we're looking at symbiotic schemes through which that club could benefit from changes in the casino regulations.'

He says that Leeds - with its geographically isolated Elland Road stadium - could consider similar development schemes as a revenue raiser.

And despite the fact that McCormicks and Walker Morris act for the club, he thinks casino linkage could prove a significant boost both to the club and to the other legal practices in Leeds.

This chimes with the other factor that seems to unite the larger firms in Leeds at the moment: a focus on development projects and similar property-related work.

This seems obvious to any visitor to the city, which is expanding rapidly along the River Aire, with large housing projects and business premises.

In addition, the city council has earmarked several sites on which it intends to build futuristic skyscrapers.

Mr McClea says Pinsents is working on phase two of the city's Royal Armouries Museum project, which will see a makeover for the museum and there are ambitions for hotels, shops and a state-of-the-art exhibition centre.

Walker Morris - the largest single-office practice in the city, which has a strong retail property division, working for Starbucks, Selfridges and Debenhams - has scooped work on the nearby

redevelopment project of Bradford city centre.

But Mr Simpson says corporate work is buoyant too.

In the past year, Walker Morris has acted on a 30 million acquisition for a leisure client and a 51 million disposal for Homestyle Group.

The firm also acted in the administration of the Sheffield Forgemasters.

At Gordons - the result of the recent merger between Bradford and Leeds-based Gordons and Leeds firm Nelson & Co - the past year has seen the former Gordons work on the successful bid by retailer Morrison for Safeway.

The firm has recently acted on the disposal of 33 Morrison supermarkets to Sainsbury's and Waitrose in fulfilment of the Department of Trade and Industry conditions relating to the merger.

Mr McLean says DLA is working on a private finance initiative (PFI) regeneration and redevelopment project for Doncaster, with an end value of about 220 million.

Perhaps the strong activity in the property development and PFI sector suggests problems in the corporate status of Leeds - where for the past five years, the number of regionally based public companies has declined visibly.

In addition, two companies providing venture capital impetus to the city - Bridgepoint and 3i - have recently closed their offices there.

Mr McClea says: 'I've been worried about the decline of the PLC base locally.' But he adds that declining PLCs often denote an increase in owner-managed businesses in the city, as larger companies break into smaller entities.

Recruitment in the city's law firms certainly seems buoyant.

Lynsey Nicholson, a recruitment consultant at Badenoch & Clark, says: 'The last 12 months have seen the recruitment of commercial and corporate positions increase by approximately 22% in the Leeds area, with medium-sized firms increasing their recruitment drives as well as the big six (Addleshaw Goddard, DLA, Eversheds, Hammonds, Pinsents and Walker Morris).'

But it is hard not to notice that some of the biggest deals handled in Leeds recently are government-related.

A good example is DLA's biggest tranche of work in the city last year, for IT provision across the National Health Service.

Mr McLean says: 'All the major IT providers in the world have been through these offices in the past year.'

Mr McLean says one of the advantages of being part of a national firm is that 'we can share our national resource in deals such as this'.

But he stamps on suggestions that the firm may have lost any local resonance: 'There's always this risk that because we are multi-sited and multi-national, second-tier firms will say we're too big for local clients.

That's absolute rubbish.

Of course we're interested in local projects as one of DLA's strengths is its broadly based client base.

However, the national projects can in some ways be regarded as "the cream on the cake".'

Over at Pinsents, Nigel McClea is a member of the steering group of Leeds Property Forum, a major new initiative sponsored by Leeds Chamber of Commerce that considers proposals for developments in the city, which are taken on by public agency Yorkshire Forward.

He explains that Yorkshire Forward is behind a range of projects in the region.

Mr Simpson says Leeds does not rely only on the business of the region, but is good at bringing it in from outside.

He says: 'The amount of lawyers in Leeds - more than Birmingham - would be unsustainable if it relied only on local work.

We pull a significant amount of work into the city.'

He says this does not just go for the big firms that are part of a national network.

'We're in as good a position - most of our work comes from across the country and overseas.

We regularly work with European lawyers.'

At a second-tier firm such as Gordons, the horizon is deliberately limited.

The firm acts for local business people and companies (alongside defendant insurance, pensions and banking work) and sees its provision of private client advice as part of a seamless service for owner-managed business.

Andrew Linden is clear in putting a modest take on the firm's aspirations.

He says: 'Having an international and national presence is a different utility for which we have great respect but it's not us.

We are concentrating on the regional market in Yorkshire and the north.'

He says the firm will continue with 'organic growth and lateral hires', and aims to be the regional choice outside the big Leeds firms.

Certainly the owner-managed business strata keeps Mr McCormick busy as well.

In addition to his football focus, his firm also acts for several local clients - such as Nidd Vale Motor Group - on buy-out and commercial issues.

He says the owner-managed scene suits firms of his size (it has 12 partners) and he has had a profitable year.

His work with Leeds United has enabled the firm to grow a niche football practice and Mr McCormick spends a couple of days a week in London now working for the FA Premier League and the Football Association on legal matters.

Ms Nicholson says: 'There has been a resurgence of second-tier or medium-sized law firms, which have grown in size and reputation.

Many of these have aggressive business plans, looking to increase their staffing levels by 30% over the next five years.'

At Walker Morris, Mr Simpson says 'merger is certainly not on the agenda', though he tempers this to say that the firm's strategy 'is to be light on our feet, because the business environment changes very quickly these days'.

One thing he does not want is a rigid strategy.

He says: 'It seems that to set in stone a five-year plan and adhere to it would be a big mistake.

I think for a long time there've been six main players in Leeds.

They all have different strategies for growth, and they are all doing well achieving their objectives.

We're the ones set apart because of our single-location strategy.'

He says this stands Walker Morris in good stead, because 'we can fish in any pond we like.

We are not hidebound by our partners in, say, Nottingham from working there, as happens to those firms with networks'.

Walker Morris could not have a more different take from that of Addleshaw Goddard.

Managing partner Mark Jones says: 'Our 1997 merger [creating Addleshaw Booth & Co] was our first, and our 2002 merger [with City firm Theodore Goddard] was the next.

We deliberately did not call it the last.

We take view that mergers are not to be embarked on lightly or frequently - far more fail than succeed - but eventually firms reach a glass ceiling.'

He says the Leeds and Manchester offices of what was then Addleshaw Booth & Co had reached such a ceiling.

He suggests that other firms are now at such a point, and probably could and should grow out of the region.

Meanwhile, for Addleshaws, he discounts further merger for the next couple of years - 'in that period we'll be bedding down this merger and best-friend relationships with firms abroad' - but beyond that he says the firm may well consider further merger, probably looking to the US.

The firm's strategy is clearly defined in the meantime: 'By 2009, we want to be within a group of no more than ten firms just outside the magic circle.'

At DLA, a Victorian bust of founding lawyer Thomas Townend Dibb in the reception of the firm's modern glass office is a reminder of how far the firm has come.

But Mr McLean says 'this is a forward-looking business', though he reckons the firm has shed its reputation for being 'a bit dour', adding: 'I think there is a general sense that we've moved forward more than everyone else.

Virtually all of our groups here have exceeded budget this year.

I see that continuing across the board.

I don't see any big warning signs, and even though corporate and banking are not the most buoyant markets, Leeds is holding up well.'

Nigel McClea says Pinsents is pushing forward its 'chosen markets' strategy, organising its departments on an industry-focused basis.

This sees the different departments contact clients through focused industry groups which also develop 'legal products' to sell to clients.

Mr McClea adds: 'It is no longer enough to be a passive purveyor of ivory-tower law.

The clients expect their lawyers to be industry "savvy".' He says the firm has had a good year but acknowledges that his role as managing partner comes at a stage of recovery after some trying times.

'We were recognised at one stage to be ahead of the rest in Leeds.

We then did a fatal thing and learnt complacency.

'But then we sat down and said "we will never be complacent again".'

He adds that the firm has now recovered from problems surrounding the Garrets affair - Arthur Andersen's now defunct legal office in Leeds recruited heavily from Pinsents.

Mr McClea says that although there were worrying moments, 'when it looked like the future was accountancy tied law firms, the future is now the past and it's not the way legal services has gone.

In terms of clients, we were pleased by how sticky they were'.

For all the optimism about their work, the football may be getting these Leeds United-supporting lawyers down.

'The big fear is that, like Sheffield Wednesday, the club will disappear off the radar,' says Mr Linden.

But there seems no danger that the lawyers in Leeds will follow the football club that far down the league table.