Lawyers move on as Brooke North closes doors

ONE of Yorkshire’s oldest law firms, Brooke North, has closed after being hit by the recession.

All 15 lawyers at the Leeds-based practice, which is thought to have been established around 150 years ago, have found work at other firms.

Rodney Dalton, a senior figure at Brooke North for 16 years, said the effects of the economic downturn and the firm’s business model had impacted on recent performance.

Mr Dalton said Brooke North’s approach of offering a bespoke service for its clients across different areas of law, rather than a “one stop shop” for all its clients had actually had a negative effect.

This was because many of its owner-managed business clients had stopped using the firm when the recession hit as their own organisations had been impacted by the downturn and other work hadn’t filled the gap, he said.

“If you add all that up it doesn’t present a particularly encouraging picture,” Mr Dalton said. “We tried to do a deal with our landlord to enable us to continue, albeit in a slightly different format. But unfortunately we couldn’t do a deal.

“We then looked at ourselves and another problem was there was little opportunity of a solution across the board. We didn’t have the bulk stuff such as second mortgage items to fall back on.

“We prided ourselves on giving a bespoke service to individual clients. The recession just slaughtered us.”

Mr Dalton, a property expert who has joined Lupton Fawcett following Brooke North’s break-up, said the firm had considered a merger with another firm but had decided against the move. He also claimed the firm had been approached itself by suitors in more prosperous times.

“All we could see is that in 2012 we’ll be looking back at 2011 and saying that was a good year,” he said. “In the long run a takeover might have done us less good than a break-up has done. This has given us the opportunity to negotiate our own deals.”

The majority of the remaining staff at Brooke North, which numbered around 30, have found work elsewhere.

Gordon Watson, Andrew Evans, Andrea Jones, Steven Frieze, Gillian Kaufman, Koby Gyasi and Lucy Clark have joined Ward Hadaway’s insolvency and private client teams.

Jo Gill, Laura Salvati, Richard Stockdale and Nigel Midlemass have joined Schofield Sweeney’s litigation department.

Corporate lawyer Nigel Hoyle has moved to Blacks, employment expert Elizabeth Pollock has gone to Raworths and Ben Hardy has gone in-house at Stonebridge Homes.