The Legal 500

Insurance litigation firm Berrymans Lace Mawer, with offices across the UK, continues to feature in four regional chapters and across the London insurance section, with defendant personal injury its strongest suit; it ranks as one of three leading firms in the area. It is also recommended for its health and safety, education (schools and institutions) and local government practices.

Bevan Brittan LLP, with offices in Bristol, Birmingham and London, stands out for its public sector practice, and is a leading choice nationally for healthcare work, acting both for NHS clients and a growing range of private sector entities, including BUPA, while property and employment are other areas of strength. In the London tables, it rises in education this year, and is new to financial services and planning.

Blake Lapthorn ranks very highly across the South East region, where it has four offices as well as one in London; it attracts top-tier recommendations in areas ranging from to corporate tax, competition, pensions and IP/IT, to claimant personal injury and insolvency. In London, strengths include rail and TMT, and it is newly ranked in financial services and commercial litigation.

Boodle Hatfield has evolved to serve its core base of private clients across their personal and business lives, drawing on tax and trusts, property and corporate law expertise to advise private companies as well as high-net-worth individuals; Grosvenor is the firm’s largest client, and uses the firm across a range of areas including for property, construction and property litigation advice. The firm is newly ranked in charities and family this year, completing a full set of private client rankings.

Brabners Chaffe Street has a strong full-service presence in the North West, through its offices in Manchester, Liverpool and Preston, and is a pre-eminent name in football work, advising the FA and clubs including Manchester United and Liverpool, while other clients include adidas (UK). It is ranked in London for sport and also for brand management, largely on the strength of its sponsorship practice.

Bristows lost some high-profile partners in 2007, including its head of life sciences, but it remains a force in areas such as IP, patent litigation and pharmaceuticals and biotech, with a client base featuring Diageo, T-Mobile, Nokia Siemens Networks, Samsung, the BBC, and Sony Computer Entertainment. It is also recommended across a variety of areas outside TMT, including a new ranking for fraud: commercial and regulatory. The firm has taken up new offices in the Unilever building.

Browne Jacobson LLP, through its Nottingham office, remains a key full-service player in the East Midlands, and handles high-quality work across a range of practice areas in its Birmingham office. It has a third office in London, and is recommended in the London professional negligence, healthcare and multi-modal sections, reflecting its national capability in those areas.

Clarke Willmott is a well-established full-service presence in the South West market, with offices in Bristol and Taunton, and it has been expanding rapidly outside the region of late with multiple hires into its offices in Birmingham and Southampton; the firm has doubled in size and turnover since 2000. Key strengths include real estate; retail; private client and wealth management; and sport, for which it is ranked nationally.

Cobbetts LLP’s Manchester practice enjoys a range of top-tier rankings, among them commercial property, property litigation, charities, health and local government, and its Leeds and Birmingham offices are also recommended across a variety of areas, although the firm’s noted social housing practice was hit by the departure of the Birmingham team to Shoosmiths. It opened a London office in 2007, and has recently undertaken a major overhaul of its partnership structure.

DWF LLP is a full-service North West heavyweight, with top-tier recommendations in insolvency, employment and defendant personal injury. It was established in Liverpool over 30 years ago, and also has offices in Manchester, Preston and Leeds. With fee-income breaking £50m in 2007, it has ambitious growth plans, and now boast a London office, having taken on a team of catastrophic injury lawyers from Davies Lavery in mid-2008.

Media firm Davenport Lyons is a leading choice for defendant defamation work, acting for Private Eye and Harper Collins among others, and features prominently in the TMT section, with a top-tier ranking for media and entertainment and recommendations in brand management, IP, and now also sport. Elsewhere, recommendations include licensing, lower-value M&A, and asset finance, and it is new to the employment table this year.

Finers Stephens Innocent LLP has a widely respected media practice, acting for a range of publishing and broadcasting clients, and ranks highly for its defamation and privacy work. Other recommendations include commercial property, disputes (including PI claimant), and financial services (where it is new to the ranking this year); it also joins the heritage property ranking, adding to private client rankings in family and personal tax, trusts and probate.

Fladgate LLP has core strength in property (development, investment and funding) and is also notable as a leading choice for lower-value M&A, acting for clients such as Random House and Deutsche Bank’s RREEF real estate business. It has a growing international client base, with nearly a third of its income deriving from non-UK clients investing in the UK. It joins the rankings for financial services and small to mid-cap flotations this year.

Mayfair firm Forsters LLP is now ten years old. Acting for clients such as The Crown Estate and Invista, it has built its reputation on commercial property work, ranging from lower-value deals to transactions well over £100m, and has notable expertise in residential property and leasehold enfranchisement. Private client is also a focal area, and the firm is new to the contentious trusts and probate ranking this year, as well as moving up in family. It also joins the M&A (smaller deals) and planning tables.

HBJ Gateley Wareing LLP has grown very significantly in recent years; it now has over 80 partners and 6 UK offices across the Midlands, Scotland and London, where it has recently merged with two niche shipping and transport firms (Shaw and Croft and Holmes Hardingham). It has also won Legal Business’ national/regional law firm of the year award in 2008, for its success in building a credible national presence.

North West heavyweight Hill Dickinson LLP has offices in Liverpool, Manchester and Chester, and stands out for its strength in defendant insurance (clinical negligence, personal injury and professional negligence) and commercial property. It is also in London, having reunited with Hill Taylor Dickinson, with recommendations including asset finance and shipping; the firm has a large team of wet and dry lawyers and also a leading superyachts practice. It has launched an in-house chambers and reports a 31% increase in turnover for 2007.

Mid-market firm Howard Kennedy attracted some attention with the departure of five of its media partners in 2008, but it remains recommended in areas ranging from commercial property, small to mid-cap flotations and commercial litigation, to commodities, aviation and private client. It is new to the charities section this year, and has also joined the ranking for lower-value M&A.

Manchester firm Pannone LLP, with nearly 400 lawyers in the region, has diversified over the years from a specialist insurance firm to a full-service practice. While ranked across the board, it maintains a market-leading practice in claimant clinical negligence and personal injury, and is also strong in family and private client. On the commercial side, clients include BASF, Kellogg’s and Rentokil. It is ranked nationally for its criminal fraud work. 2008 saw the firm overhaul its management structure, with Joy Kingsley stepping down from the managing partner role after 14 years.

Shepherd and Wedderburn has Scotland’s leading energy practice (electricity and renewables are particular strengths), and it is also impressive in areas such as commercial property and PFI. In common with the other ‘Big Four’ Scottish firms, it has an office in London as well as its bases in Scotland; it is recommended nationally for corporate finance (in M&A (smaller deals) and small to mid-cap flotations).

TLT is a major player in the South West, at the heels of the dominant pairing of Burges Salmon LLP and Osborne Clarke for corporate work, and with top-tier practices in employment, pensions, family and debt recovery. It is recommended in London for property finance and social housing, and also for asset finance and shipping following its merger with niche maritime and international trade firm Constant and Constant in 2007.

Thomas Eggar LLP expanded its coverage in the South East with its acquisition of Penningtons Solicitors LLP’s Newbury office, and the addition of a base in Southampton, taking its tally of offices in the region to five. It also has a London office, with rankings in the London tables including commercial property, education (institutions) and rail.

Ward Hadaway is major player in the North, ranking behind only Dickinson Dees LLP as a heavyweight in the region. Particular strengths include public sector work; it advised on over £2bn-worth of public sector projects across the country in 2007, and its strength in local government work is recognised in the national table. It opened a new office in Leeds in July 2008.

Watson Burton LLP, now a 39-partner firm, is another heavyweight in the North. Among other areas of strength, it is the leading construction firm in the region, and is also recommended nationally in that area. The firm has offices in Leeds and London as well as Newcastle.

Wedlake Bell’s strengths include property, employment and pensions, and private client, and it also appears in the new Brand management section, for its work for brand owners such as Jaeger.

National firm Weightmans LLP is a heavyweight presence in the North West, and has offices in Birmingham, Leicester and London as well as Manchester and Liverpool. Particularly well known for its insurance work, it ranks in the London tables for defendant clinical negligence and personal injury, and also for its local government work.