Legal briefs: Slater Heelis milestone; Brabners; Kings Chambers
ONE of the region’s oldest law firms, Slater Heelis, is celebrating its 240th year in business with a 20% hike in staff numbers.
The south Manchester firm, which has two offices in Sale and another in Timperley, traces its origins back to 1773.
In the last year it has added 14 staff to its ranks, and the workforce now stands at 84. Newcomers this year have included experienced corporate lawyer Katharine Mellor, who joined as a partner from national firm DWF.
Despite the challenges many law firms are facing Slater Heelis is optimistic about its prospects.
Managing partner Mike Fox said: “The landscape has changed dramatically for law firms over the past five or six years and our growth this year really reflects those changes.
“We have made a number of very strategic hires and additions to the firm and have been able to acquire a number of small, niche business legal firms who can see the benefits of joining a larger firm and bring with them significant client portfolios.
“Conversely a number of leading legal figures such as Katharine Mellor and Kate Rayner, have joined us from larger firms because they prefer to work within a smaller, more personal team and want the autonomy and authority to be able to work without the restrictions that larger firms often impose.”
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BRABNERS has become a corporate partner of trade body Mersey Maritime.
Over the next year Brabners and Mersey Maritime will work on a series of business development initiatives and networking opportunities for Mersey Maritime’s members, including a number of events planned specifically for Maritime, Logistics and Energy week during the International Festival for Business 2014.
Mersey Maritime represents more than 1,700 businesses supplying the maritime sector.
The Liverpool, Manchester and Preston firm joins an exclusive club of industry specific sponsors at Mersey Maritime, including, Peel Ports, Cammell Laird, Coulter Hurst, NatWest, Hugh Baird College and Grant Thornton.
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KINGS Chambers has been ranked as one of the top 10 national barrister’s chambers in the annual Chambers UK list.
It has 90 barristers practising from offices in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham and was placed in ninth.
Chambers said: “Kings Chambers’ ongoing pursuit of legal excellence has led commentators to dub the set the ‘King of the North’.”
Dr Nick Braslavsky QC, head of chambers at Kings, said: “I want to congratulate everyone at Kings Chambers on this excellent performance. It is reward for a great deal of hard work and for a huge commitment to outstanding recruitment. It shows strength by width of practice areas and depth in each.
“The plain fact is that there are very strong practice groups in concentrated sets of chambers outside the capital. For some time we have attracted many of the best and brightest pupils to begin their career at Kings. They have developed into outstanding practitioners and have worked hard for their success.”
