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The East Anglian market encompasses the farming and agricultural hubs of Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire; Ipswich, Norwich and Peterborough, where many SME and owner-managed businesses have their homes; and the international technology hub that is Cambridge.

Despite the economic uncertainty surrounding the UK, the mood of guarded optimism has grown stronger over the past year, thanks to a positive upward trend in both corporate and commercial activity and the real estate sector. Commercial and residential developments are on the rise, and cash-rich companies are eyeing up strategic corporate acquisitions while prices are relatively low. Many law firms continued to receive a steady stream of conveyancing and tax matters for small, family-owned farm businesses and large, multinational agribusinesses, while the sustained high values of agricultural land continued to encourage strategic land acquisitions.

Firms also continued to tap into the life sciences and IT industries, advising clients ranging from small, start-up businesses that have spun out of Cambridge University to well-established international technology companies that have outposts in the city. Mills & Reeve LLP and Taylor Vinters are active in this space, and Taylor Wessing LLP focuses exclusively on technology-related corporate and venture capital work.

As well as the farming and technology communities, East Anglia is home to many entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses. The thriving owner-managed business sector is the lifeblood of many law firms with a local or regional focus.

Eversheds LLP stands out among the law firms in the region; its offices in Cambridge and Ipswich often act for the wider firm’s national clients, but also maintain client relationships with many of the region’s largest local businesses. Mills & Reeve LLP has a more regional focus to its client base, but also advises many national and international clients.

Birketts LLP’s Ipswich, Cambridge, Norwich and Chelmsford offices continue to develop strong reputations across East Anglia. The relatively young Cambridge office is rapidly growing in size, and has proven that it is possible to carve out a niche in a city that many consider to be overlawyered.

The result of by far the biggest consolidation in the region, between well-known firms Kester Cunningham John and Ashton Graham, Ashton KCJ joins the list of regional heavyweights this year. The consolidation achieves a considerable spread of resources across the region, and brings together many complementary practices, though there has been some movement of notable partners to other firms, such as employment specialist Matthew Potter moving to Birketts LLP and Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp to Pattinson & Brewer in London. The firm also merged with Chambers & Co. in Norwich.

Hewitsons LLP maintains a strong brand in Cambridge.

Norwich-based Howes Percival LLP attracts impressive local work in areas such as commercial property and insolvency, attracting instructions from government departments.

Taylor Vinters has an excellent reputation around Cambridge, and has its sights set further afield through its London and Singapore offices.

Charles Russell LLP’s Cambridge office transferred in its entirety to Penningtons Solicitors LLP, including its busy corporate and employment teams.

Tees Solicitors continued its rapid expansion through mergers; 2011 saw it merge with firms in Northampton and Milton Keynes, as well as overhaul its business model, with chartered accountant Paul Stothard appointed its first chief executive.

In other merger news, prominent Peterborough firm Greenwoods Solicitors LLP joined forces with Walker Wallis, establishing a presence in Cambridge through Walker Wallis’ team of corporate/commercial and dispute resolution partners; and Ward Gethin merged with Archer & Archer to become Ward Gethin Archer.

Peterborough-based firm Hunt & Coombs Solicitors has carved out a niche in mental health law, European enforcement orders and Spanish legal services.

Alan Dobbins, former managing partner of Norwich-based Hatch Brenner LLP, retired in 2011; Dobbins remains a consultant but has passed on management responsibilities to chief executive Maria Chryssafi and others. The firm is also launching a new one-stop service for financial, tax and basic legal services in conjunction with a Norwich-based accountancy firm and a national firm of financial advisers.

Kerseys Solicitors’ Miranda Reckitt retired from her position as family law consultant after 42 years with the firm..

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