Clients in the SME (small to medium enterprises) market – be they lenders, equity providers or target businesses – are increasingly unwilling to remain with firms that are unable to offer the specialist advice in corporate and debt finance that their growing businesses require.

Loyalty to legal advisers on the basis that ‘they have been with us since we started the business’ is becoming a thing of the past. Rare is the property lawyer who will ‘do a bit of secured lending now and then’.