Hartlepool firm Tilly Bailey & Irvine is setting up a dealing room as part of its newly established investment services department.

According to funds manager Iain Mackie, the firm aims to "bring the City to Hartlepool". The dealing room is part of the firm's technology plan and will be a "state of the art dealing room" with full graphics, price quotes and presentation facilities. It will feature software "which can take clients through portfolio management", he added.

Mackie said the firm will use the room partly as a marketing tool. "We expect clients to tell other people about it, that it is a breath of fresh air. We expect that to create a buzz," he added.

Mackie said the room would also create awareness among existing fee earners: "If they have clients who want to use the Treasury service, they only have to walk down the corridor to have a chat about it."

He said a law firm could offer "a more genuine service" than traditional stockbrokers as many clients "were not that well educated about the stockmarket".

The department would also offer an execution dealing service where the commission would be "broadly" 30 per cent less than that offered by local stockbrokers. PEPs would be offered as well as advice on self-invested pension schemes. Partners in the firm could take advantage of this, Mackie said, adding that this would also help to market the service because they would tell clients.

The firm opened its department on 2 January and expects the dealing room to be completed by the end of February.