Gateley on hiring alert as firms start to return to the market

Corporate partner Nick Emmerson yesterday predicted that the Alternative Investment Market is “wide open” for the backlog of Yorkshire companies who found the market closed during the downturn.

He added: “The investor mood has definitely shifted towards home-grown, local companies and away from overseas companies that have struggled with cultural, financial management and corporate governance issues.

“For the right Yorkshire companies, the opportunity is definitely there.”

Mr Emmerson has returned to his Yorkshire roots by joining the Gateley team in Leeds, from the London office of Eversheds.

He plans to work on UK and international deals, and hopes to attract Chinese investors who are interested in taking a stake in Yorkshire firms.

Gateley, which has eight UK offices and an operation in Dubai, established a Leeds office last year, which is led by restructuring lawyer William Ballmann.

Mr Emmerson said yesterday: “We definitely think there’s a gap in the Leeds market place for Gateley.

“With five of the big six firms focusing on London and international work, there does seem to be space in the local market. We already have clients in this mar- ket.

“It’s important for me to work with Yorkshire businesses who wish to expand internationally.”

Mr Emmerson, who has lived and worked in Japan and China, said he also planned to “look after overseas clients coming here, particularly from Asia and the US”.

He added: “There’s been a lot of news about big Chinese investments in the UK.

“They are buying mid-scale manufacturing companies. Sometimes it’s for access to technology, but frequently it’s access to specific customers.

“There’s lots of different motivations for them to come over. The Chinese economy is driven by the mid-size companies.”

So far, Gateley’s Leeds office has got four partners, and Mr Emmerson said the firm was reluctant to set arbitrary targets for its growth.

He added: “It’s about the quality of lawyer and the right opportunities locally. We want to be full service by the end of the year – that’s up to six partners.

“Gateley is more like the traditional law firm that Leeds had in abundance 15 years ago.”

In recent months, there have been concerns that some law firms may struggle to survive. Almost a quarter of law firms in Yorkshire and the Humber are “at risk”, according to recent research carried out by R3, the trade body for insolvency professionals.

Mr Emmerson said yesterday: “There are going to be some casualties, but where there’s good lawyers, there’s good clients.”

The firm has achieved significant growth since 2006, when Henderson Boyd Jackson and Gateley Wareing came together to create a legal firm with a large client base in Scotland and England.

Gateley, which employs 700 people, opened an office in Manchester in 2010, as part of a strategy to build up the scale of its operations in northern England.