Amid fierce competition for talent from London, new entrants and closer transport links point to a new chapter for the Midlands legal market.
North East: Work to rule
Employment law concerns loom particularly large in the minds of North East companies.
North West: Not so grim
Commercially-driven Manchester is helping to lead the North West’s striking transformation from industrial heartland to modern knowledge economy.
Northern Ireland: Northern Exposure
While the economic downturn and subsequent public sector cuts have hit the region harder than most, Northern Ireland’s resilience is very much in evidence.
Scotland: Scotland the brave
It’s been a turbulent ride for the Scots legal market post-banking crisis, but with the independence vote settled, the region is feeling more buoyant.
South West: Bristol Fashion
Big spending clients in Bristol are keeping a raft of national firms and strong local players particularly busy.
Wales: Back to basics
With a far higher percentage of public sector respondents and a high proportion of SME businesses, Wales has unique legal requirements.
Yorkshire: No quarter asked
As one of the region’s most sophisticated and competitive hubs, Yorkshire lawyers are still expecting to fight for work, even in a reviving economy.
Banking Litigation Insight: ‘The worst case scenario is £200m – litigation is containable’
An unprecedented wave of global enforcement has pushed risks facing banks to once unthinkable proportions. In the follow-up to our banking litigation Insight with Stephenson Harwood, bank counsel discuss managing the biggest risks in global business. Alex Novarese reports.
‘A head of litigation at a bank was saying to me the other day: “I don’t really care about [civil litigation]. If a counterparty has a claim, even a big claim, you instruct your litigators – it’s expensive and you try to control the cost but it’s just a bit of litigation. Worst-case scenario is we may have to write a cheque for £200m but we know the limits of the problem. We don’t really care. It’s containable. It’s predictable.” You would have never heard someone saying something like that ten years ago. But all these issues about reputation, regulation and unquantifiable fines – it’s such a mess. You know you have got to do something about it but you don’t know where it will go.’