Law firm will relocate to new city centre base to reflect flexible working model
Insurance risk and commercial law firm BLM is set to move its Manchester offices to the Two New Bailey development, a 71,000 sq ft scheme located in the heart of Salford.
The move comes at a time the firm embarks on a new flexible working model which will see colleagues working remotely up to 50% of the time.
BLM will relocate in August from its Manchester headquarters within King’s House, King Street West and Alberton House, St Mary’s Parsonage.
It will occupy four of the building’s 10 stories, in an agile working space fitted out by workplace design and build practice TSK Group.
The Two New Bailey development boasts impressive green credentials, achieving Grade A BREEAM ‘excellent’ specification, as BLM looks to improve the long term sustainability of its operations.
The credentials mean that Two New Bailey is within the top 10% of UK non-domestic buildings in regards to its environmental, social and economic sustainability performance. In accordance with BLM’s commitment to paperless working, the technology, collaboration software and tools available at Two New Bailey support the firm’s approach and mission to become a digital first firm.
Two New Bailey offers digitally-enabled collaborative work and meeting spaces for BLM’s multi-discipline teams that span a variety of practice groups from insurance and risk-focused services such as catastrophic injury, motor, occupational disease, and fraud to the firm’s commercial services which includes employment, estate planning, creative, digital and marketing, family and property.
The new building’s contemporary features also include dedicated wellbeing rooms on each floor, first aid rooms and a multi-faith room, in addition to a client lounge, an outdoor terrace and shared rooftop garden.
Celebrating the move, Matthew Harrington, senior partner at BLM, said: “We have spent an impressive eight decades in the heart of Manchester’s city centre and an office move of this size with such a rich history was bound to be significant.
“Needless to say, we are thrilled with the teams involved in the move and their successful approach to manage the challenges presented to them during a pandemic.
“With the world of work resuming, we can take our learnings from the pandemic that imposed home working upon us in a very short space of time and offer colleagues a complete programme of work options including a hybrid working model that allows staff to split their time between being office-based and home-based.”
He added: “Our colleagues will be able to collaborate effectively, have flexibility in work arrangements, benefit from enhanced technology and tools in an inclusive and sustainable environment. As we look to strengthen our position in the North, we are very excited about the future of the firm and look forward to starting our next chapter at Two New Bailey.”
BLM has been based in Manchester since 1946 in King’s House, King Street West and expanded to Alberton House, St Mary’s Parsonage, in 2003, for the 645-strong Northern-based team.
