A two-tiered hierarchy of UK legal cities has emerged, according to research by global real estate company CBRE published this month.
The firm’s Law in the Regions report, is based on interviews with members of top UK law firms, and analysis of factors such as number of fee earners, total office floor-space per city occupied by top 100 firms and rent per fee earner. It found that Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester are the leading cities outside of London, each with more than 750,000 square feet of office space occupied by top 100 law firms. The second-tier cities are Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool and Glasgow, which have volumes in the 300,000–500,000 square feet range.
The draw for the top 100 is the opportunity to occupy high-quality office-space at a far lower cost than in the capital. In the past five years, many firms have set up “global legal service centres” in a UK regional city after considering offshore locations from the perspectives of cost, quality and risk.
