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Region’s top law firms named and billings soar
Written by Business Weekly   
Thursday, 14 September 2006
Mills & Reeve has 31 number one ratings for East Anglia in the new edition of The Legal 500, the law profession’s ‘bible’ published by Legalease. That’s nearly three times the level of its nearest rival – Taylor Vinters – which has 11 number one slots across the various fields of expertise covered by the guide. With offices in Cambridge and Norwich locally, Mills & Reeve also boasts one-sixth of the rainmakers named in The Legal 500’s ‘Leading Individuals’ tables for the East Anglia region (Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk). The firm has eight of the 48 top lawyers named by the guide.

The firm also reclaims joint top spot for Corporate & Commercial Law in Cambridge with Eversheds after slipping into the second tier last year. All round, it is the strongest performance by any single firm in the areas covered by Business Weekly.

Hewitsons and Eversheds each have 10 first rankings, Birketts and Greenwoods seven apiece and Kester Cunningham John, four.

The Legal 500’s regional heavyweights for East Anglia – effectively a local ‘super Six’ – are: Top tier: Eversheds and Mills & Reeve; 2nd tier: Birketts; 3rd tier: Greenwoods, Hewitsons, Taylor Vinters.

Greenwoods not only makes the top six for the region but is rated clear number one corporate law firm in Peterborough while Birketts all round performance is also outstanding.

Wollastons takes the major corporate honours unchallenged in Essex. Shoosmiths is the only Milton Keynes firm to make the regional heavyweight rankings for the South East, covering Essex, Herts, Beds and Bucks.

Within the sub-region including Beds & Bucks, Shoosmiths has to share the corporate law limelight with Kimbells, Howes Percival and EMW Law.

More top quality work is being retained in the East of England than ever before – work that formerly slipped to the City of London at much higher cost. That spells good news for the growing cluster of businesses in the region expanding internationally.

Business Weekly’s 32-page Law Lords supplement, published today in association with The Legal 500, also includes the rankings of the region’s leading firms in the UK Top 100 by fee billings. Eversheds, is 7th place is highest ranked with 2006 revenues of £323m – up 7 per cent from last year. This represents £420,000 per partner (up 20 per cent year-on-year).

Next highest firm with a local office is Taylor Wessing in 19th with turnover up 12 per cent to £142.4m (£387k PEP). Shoosmiths are 31st, Mills & Reeve 50th and Howes Percival 93rd.

The fee billings tables, published by The Legal 500’s sister magazine, Legal Business, show that UK law firm billings topped £10,7bn last year and that Clifford Chance became the first £1bn law firm.

• To view our 32-page Law Lords supplement with all the major rankings and fee billings, link through to the digital version via our home page. Also see www.legal500.com
 
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