The Leeds effect: Stewarts thriving in a booming legal market
The economy in Leeds is the most diverse of any city in the UK, even more so than London. Financial, business and legal services make up the biggest slices of the pie, making this an exciting time to be a lawyer in Leeds. Numerous studies have suggested that Leeds is outpacing London as the fastest-growing legal city in England: the number of legal jobs in Leeds grew 20% between 2010 and 2015, four times the growth in the capital. Covid-19 and the shift to remote or ‘hybrid’ working for lawyers has arguably made the northern market even more attractive.
With its two offices in London and Leeds, litigation specialist law firm Stewarts is seeing the benefits of being in these two legal hubs. Both bases do top-level work in both a local and international context. This approach has been hugely successful in both cities. Take the example of the divorce and family team: established by Stephen Foster in 2005 with no other qualified lawyers and just one paralegal, it has grown to become a market-leading force with 12 partners, 10 senior associates and 17 associates between the two locations.
The attraction of Leeds
Tom Matusiak
With the arrival of Channel 4 in 2020, exciting new infrastructure like the planned regeneration of the South Bank in Leeds in the works, and the news that Yorkshire and the Humber was the fastest regional economy to bounce back from the pandemic, this is no doubt an exciting time for the Leeds City Region. As a director of the Leeds Law Society and a legal director at Stewarts’ Leeds office, Tom Matusiak, has tracked the region’s boom closely. He can list plenty of reasons why the market is attractive for law firms, not least the “the quality, breadth and history of the legal market in Leeds, combined with the fantastic graduate pool and the exciting changes that digital tech is bringing to the legal industry in Leeds”.
There are also more intangible reasons to get in on the Leeds action. “There’s definitely a pride in helping the growth of the region as a whole that you don’t get in London or perhaps anywhere else,” Tom notes. “There are outstanding options for studying and building careers in Leeds – and there are also those who grow up in Yorkshire and, after starting their career in London or elsewhere, return because they feel the call of the North.”
Cost-effectiveness is a big advantage for Leeds in competition with London: for grade A headline rent, office costs are more than 55% lower.
For these reasons and others, Leeds is fertile ground for law firms, with more than 1,560 legal companies now based in the region including 28 of the UK’s top 100 law firms. Together with financial services, law is one of the key pillars of the local economy.
Stewarts in Leeds
Dan Herman
Stewarts has deep roots in Leeds. The office opened in 2003 and has grown considerably in the two decades since, with five full teams spanning divorce and family, commercial litigation, personal injury, clinical negligence and competition litigation. “All of the teams have grown significantly in recent years, especially the divorce team,” according to head of the Leeds office Dan Herman. “It has always been a myth that you need to be in London to do the best legal work and many more firms are now joining us in opening offices here in Leeds.” Legal directories Chambers and The Legal 500 recognise Stewarts as market leaders in the Yorkshire and the Humber region as well as in the capital.
More and more lawyers are moving between London and Leeds, some of them making the journey back and forth every week. Dan notes that the Leeds team is acting “for clients all over country and internationally,” even more so as a result of Covid-19. “Some meetings might need to be held face-to-face, but just as we are now used to meeting friends and family virtually, many of the firm’s clients are happy to do the same.”
“As Head of Leeds, it’s important to me there is a similar culture in both the Leeds and London offices,” Dan says. “When people move between the offices, it’s important that they are working in a similar environment, whether it’s the nature of the work, the values we hold and even the carpets and furniture.” The teams regularly interact, whether it is for a case, marketing project or social event. A good example of this is the Divorce and Family Law Podcast, recorded and produced in both the Leeds and London offices.
The Divorce and Family team
Jenny Bowden
Jenny Bowden, senior associate and one of the podcast’s hosts, has worked in Leeds since qualifying at another firm in 2013 and has witnessed the Divorce and Family team’s growth in recent years. “We have access to the wider legal resources of the London office, but in a smaller team environment,” she says. At the firm as a whole “there’s a balance between the hard hitting, serious litigation machine and being very personable.”
While some inevitably feel the pull of London, many young lawyers who study and qualify in the North want to practice close to home, and combine the local knowledge that can only come with years of experience and expertise shared with colleagues across the country. Led by Adrian Clossick, the Leeds divorce and family team includes colleagues with roots across the UK, some of whom have practiced in both London and overseas before joining the Leeds office, and the team routinely advises both regional clients, clients based in London and international clients. Geography is no barrier.
Adrian helped set up the Leeds family practice and took on his leadership role in 2016, overseeing its expansion to a seven-lawyer, 12-person team as it stands today (with further growth planned). Covid-19 may have changed the way we all live and work, but it has hardly slowed up legal practice (or the rate of divorces) and the team is as busy as ever. Divorce enquiries at Stewarts grew 122% from July to October 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, and the number of people seeking divorce related advice jumped by 136% in June 2021 compared to January of that year.
How has Covid-19 changed things?
Legal tech and innovation were already gaining momentum pre-pandemic, but the last couple of years have seen an acceleration. Jenny notes that Stewarts was “quite forward-thinking in already organising home working before the pandemic. We could hit the ground running because that was already in the pipeline.”
The 2020 Leeds City Region Legal Tech & Innovation Report proposed that there is an excellent opportunity in the local region to form stronger links between the legal and tech sectors, to unlock the opportunities that innovation can offer. Yorkshire enjoyed 48% growth in digital sector employment between 2017 and 2020, beating every other region of the UK including London. ‘LegalTech in Leeds’ events taking place this month, including a conference on 24 March, are assisting in pushing forward this collaboration.
The forward-focused landscape is perfect for young people looking to start their careers in law. Stewarts paralegal Abi Barrett was born in Bradford, grew up and went to school in Leeds and is now back in the city region following her studies at the University of Liverpool. “The work here in Leeds is exactly the same as I’d be doing in London, and working remotely has made things even easier,” she says.
Job prospects may once have lured more young people to the capital, but the shift to working from home has led many to reconsider their priorities: between March 2020 and December 2021, the number of 18-to-24-year-olds working in London fell faster than any other age group. Abi points out that “many people are put off paying more for a smaller place in London, and they won’t have access to gardens or pets. Firms are now also starting to realise the appeal of places like Leeds a lot more.”
Look to the future
As a vibrant city for students and graduates, a growing tech hub, and a close neighbour to spots of natural beauty, Leeds has obvious appeal for law firms. “The legal offering in Leeds is wide and is continually evolving – firms wishing to thrive cannot stand still,” Tom Matusiak noted in the Leeds Legal Tech & Innovation Report. He suggested that “as an innovative firm providing top quality legal advice, Stewarts finds Leeds is the perfect city outside London in which to be located.”
Moving in rhythm with the growth and energy of Leeds as a whole, Stewarts is going from strength to strength. It remains to be seen to what extent the shift to remote working will reshape legal services, but they will remain an attractive career path. Dan Herman suggests “one thing the pandemic will not change is the focus within law firms at recruiting the right young people, training them well and moulding them into partners of the future.” By maintaining this philosophy, Stewarts’ continued success and growth in Leeds seems assured.
