Law firm enjoys another year of growth

LAW firm Ward Hadaway has recorded its fifth consecutive year of growth with annual turnover rising to a record £33.5m.

The firm, which has offices in Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle, has seen growth of more than 10% over the last two years, and over the last five years growth of 20%.  The firm now employs almost 450 people across the North.

Jamie Martin, managing partner of Ward Hadaway, said: “Competition in the legal market place is intensifying with the arrival of new entrants and existing firms looking to grow their market share as a result of consolidation, set against that backdrop and the need to keep costs under control, the fact that we have continued to grow our business across all three offices is very pleasing, with a number of practice areas seeing significant growth.”

The firm’s Litigation department now has a turnover of £16m representing just short of 50% of the firm’s turnover and one of the firm’s best performing departments over the past year has been its Property team. The team which comprises more than 50 lawyers across the firm’s three offices, saw fee income grow by nearly 16% over the course of the year to the end of April 2014.
Ward Hadaway’s Commercial team has also been busy over the past year, seeing income increase by just over 17%.

The firm recruited seven partners, six associates and two consultants in the North during the course of the year.

Martin said: “There are certainly challenges ahead and we remain vigilant; on costs, competition in the legal sector and the shape that the economic recovery is taking, but we look forward to the future with confidence and to continuing to provide high quality, accessible legal services to our clients from all three of our offices across the North.

“Unlike some of our competitors we have continued to grow our workforce and to provide additional high quality jobs by investing in the regional economies of the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside, and the North West.  Ours is a story of a business founded in Newcastle, taking its expertise to other parts of the country, whilst growing in its home territory.  We are immensely proud of this achievement.

“We have had an extremely busy year across all three of our offices in the North as we continue to fulfil our vision of being a ‘Northern law firm for National Business’.”