BLP begins search for Manchester office locations
TOP law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner says the talent pool of new graduates and legal staff, and the city’s transport links to London were behind Manchester’s selection as a new office location.
The international firm, which is headquartered in the City of London, is now looking for both a temporary office location – which wil be in serviced space in the city – while a team is also seeking a permanent Manchester base.
Managing partner Neville Eisenberg told TheBusinessDesk.com: “The scale of our new Manchester office is yet to be determined, and will follow discussions with our clients, we have been working on this project for more than a year, and while we can’t say the size and shape we will be recruiting a range of people with different levels of experience.”
He was clear though that the new base would not compete on its own in the North West legal market, and would be “fully integrated” and its main function is to support the London office, and others practising English law.
Mr Eisenberg added that saving costs was also a factor in the move: “We have been having discussions with our clients about how in future they plan to buy legal services, and in response we have come up with a model of how to resource that work.
“The Manchester operation will give us flexible resourcing options. The (team) will work in different ways, more efficiently but still providing a high quality service.”
He said a number of locations, both in the UK and overseas had been looked at during the course of a year-long process to chose the new office.
Director of technology Janet Day led the project and said that Manchester had “won” for a number of reasons: “We were looking for a number of things – a strong legal market so we can recruit good people – in the wider jobs market, a population with tertiary education, and also the availability of space.
