Firm’s deal activity soars in 20th anniversary year

Chris Schofield

Deal activity for Q1 2018 has seen a 160% year-on-year rise at Yorkshire firm Schofield Sweeney.

Chris Schofield – who co-founded Schofield Sweeney in Bradford in 1998 with Martin Sweeney – said the ever-expanding business, which has now grown to employ more than 165 people, is set to turnover £12m this year. This is a far cry from when the firm started with a £300,000 turnover in its first year,  rising to £5m by 2007.

Deal activity for Q1 2018 has seen a 160% rise year-on-year for the firm, said Sweeney; and he said the property division was also very busy at present. Over the 20 years, Schofield Sweeney has worked with 24,000 clients and this year has been another very busy year so far. “It is an absolutely staggering figure,” said Schofield.

Of establishing the business, Schofield said: “We just happened to be there at the right time and the right place.” He said that at the time of setting up the business, they could make investment in IT at a time when that became a differentiator for them when pitching against larger firms.

The co-founders had worked together previously and had a desire and ambition to deliver a wide range of legal services to Yorkshire firms; many of them family businesses and a good number still remain their clients today.

“We always found ourselves growing because we just couldn’t keep it still. I wanted to go rock climbing on a Wednesday afternoon but that has never happened.  We have just grown to support the clients we had on our books,” said Sweeney.

He added that Leeds has a wealth of “very good lawyers” which meant the firm was able to attract and retain good people to the team as more work came in. Now the firm has offices in Huddersfield and Leeds too.

“The marketplace has changed a lot over the years. 20 years ago, there were superb national law firms on the doorstep and while they are still here we don’t see them in the marketplace like we used to do.

“Ten years ago with the crash, a lot of firms had to consolidate and merge,” he added.

Sweeney said their law firm saw this as an opportunity to recruit and retain staff. And a focus for the founders now is succession planning too, as they train four lawyers a year while still always growing. He said their focus was on creating deep relationships with clients across a broader spectrum of disciplines.

Both founders have long connections with Bradford, where the firm originated, and the business supports  several initiatives to support the local community. “Bradford has been fantastic for our business and always will be,” he added.

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