City continues to shine as leading legal centre

The directory said the city is the epicentre of the Yorkshire market, ahead of Sheffield in second place while York, Hull and, to a lesser extent, Bradford and Harrogate all offer a broad selection of firms.

“The Leeds legal market has for some time been seen as being on the verge of saturation, and 2010 brought the demise of both Halliwells and Ashton Morton Slack,” added the directory.

“A number of teams at the major players have decreased in size in recent years, and 2010 saw a considerable number of partner moves.”

The Big Six in Leeds continue to dominate Yorkshire in the league of regional heavyweights.

The top tier are: Addleshaw Goddard, DLA Piper, Eversheds, Pinsent Masons, Squire Sanders Hammonds and Walker Morris.

The Legal 500 puts Irwin Mitchell and Nabarro, both with offices in Sheffield, in the second tier.

It lists Cobbetts, DWF, Gordons, Clarion and Schofield Sweeney as notable firms in Leeds. They will soon be joined by Dickinson Dees, when it decamps from York.

The directory also names McCormicks of Harrogate and Andrew Jackson and Rollits, both of Hull, in its regional overview. It describes Hill Dickinson as an up-and-coming firm in Sheffield after it acquired a big chunk of Halliwells’ former practice.

The Big Six of Leeds loom large in corporate and commercial work, occupying the top tier.

Cobbetts, Gordons and Schofield Sweeney make the second tier, while Clarion, DWF, Dennison Till, Dickinson Dees, Irwin Mitchell, Langleys and Lupton Fawcett are in the third.