Freeth Cartwright unveils plans for post-LSA Birmingham growth
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Freeth Cartwright’s Birmingham practice is set to move into a space three times larger than its current office as the firm continues to expand in response to the Legal Services Act.
The Nottingham-headquartered firm has signed the lease on new, bigger offices on Bennetts Hill in Birmingham, with the expectation that it will make the move next month. The firm also aims to double the size of the practice in terms of the number of lawyers it has in the city within the next two years.
“We’ve grown from nine to 23 lawyers [in Birmingham] since we opened the office in 2007,” says Birmingham managing partner Richard Beverley. “So now, rather than just making an incremental move, we’ve signed a lease with three times the space we have now, which gives us plenty of room to expand - we aim to double the number of lawyers in the next couple of years.
“Our expansion in Birmingham is part of firm’s general expansion, which is tied up with the belief that we need to be larger and stronger to cope with the Legal Services Act and offer better national coverage for our clients.”
According to Beverley the firm is looking to reinforce all of the firm’s core commercial bases with its new hires, but will also be looking for expertise in its supporting practice areas, like regulatory and pensions, as well as the firm’s burgeoning energy practice.
The news comes shortly after Freeth Cartwright announced that it was set to merge with seven-partner Milton Keynes firm Kimbells on 1 November (16 September 2011).
Freeth Cartwright also has an associate business in Stoke on Trent, KJD Freeth, that the firm plans to assimilate soon, as well as a London office (26 April 2010), which serves as a base to meet clients but could grow into a standalone practice.
Freeth Cartwright’s net profit rose from £11.5m in 2009-10, to £13.5m in 2010-11, while an increased push on cash collection resulted in a 38 per cent drop – down to £2.85m - in borrowings at the balance sheet date, according to the firm.
