Fee income at Mills & Reeve’s Leeds office has soared by 50% in the last year.
The firm, which has described its success in Yorkshire as “truly transformational”, has attributed the success to the launch of new teams, significant client wins and some high profile appointments.
Among the latter was the arrival of property specialist Mark Pearce, who joined from Bond Dickinson and launched the firm’s commercial team last year. He was joined in May by partner Stuart Craig, who relocated from Cambridge and set up a new employment team in Leeds.
Principal associate Rebecca Pallot teamed up with Craig from DAC Beachcroft, while Shubhu Patil as principal associate from Walker Morris and associate Amanda Hughes from Gordons, joined Mills & Reeve’s corporate team.
Meanwhile partner Simon Pedley spearheaded the firm’s Leeds move into commercial disputes.
Philip Way (pictured), head of the Leeds office, said: “We have made no secret of our ambitious growth plans, particularly in the corporate and commercial arena, and I am delighted to report that our investment in lateral hires is bearing fruit.
“We have won numerous new clients including a highly acquisitive business that has embarked on a series of acquisitions over the last twelve months and a number of tech clients looking at possibility of floating on the AIM stock exchange.
“Elsewhere, we continue to attract high net worth individuals requiring private client advice and there has been as significant flow of instructions between the private client team and the corporate team in the office.
“It has been a truly transformational year. We are continuing with our growth aspirations and will announce further additions to the team in the near future.”
Overall, Mills & Reeve saw turnover rise to £92.6 million – an increase of 8% on last year. The firm comfortably outperformed the average 4.6% growth of the UK’s other top law firms.
Justin Ripman, Mills & Reeve’s senior partner, said: “We are proud to be the only law firm in the UK top 100 to have consistently grown profit and turnover each year since 2002 – safely navigating the 2008 financial crisis in the process.
“Despite the current uncertainty in the market, with the triggering of Article 50 and recent General Election, we are optimistic that we will continue to grow the business and the recent merger with London law firm Maxwell Winward is evidence of this. Our commitment to creating a collaborative culture that focuses on core markets and sectors, means we can deepen our client relationships and deliver commercial, focused, sensible advice.”
