Northern light

‘Contrary to popular belief, Leeds is not paved with gold,’ one regional managing partner sardonically observes. Once considered the second legal market outside London, Leeds was historically where everybody wanted to be. The region experienced a rush of interest and steady inward investment as a number of local and national names moved in for a slice of the action.

However, many claim the legal market has now reached bursting point. With the increasing popularity of other northern legal centres, such as Manchester and Newcastle, Leeds’ reputation as the leading regional market is increasingly being called into question.

Despite its relatively small size, Leeds has long boasted an extremely successful economy and, over the years, firms based in the city profited handsomely from the corporate finance work it has generated. There was little doubt in the 1980s and early ’90s that the legal market here was more developed than its regional peers, and a number of major commercial practices began to monopolise (or more accurately, oligopolise) the market. Dubbed ‘the Big Six’ – namely DLA Piper, Eversheds, Pinsent Masons, Addleshaw Goddard, Hammonds and Walker Morris – these regional goliaths were able to feed off what was widely considered the major financial centre outside London. ‘Leeds was the birthplace of the national practices,’ Glenn Miller, managing partner of Leeds veteran Beachcroft, says. ‘It was where the idea of the aggressive acquisitive firm first came from. We ourselves have been here forever.’

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