Every Manchester lawyer seems to have a Halliwell Landau anecdote. Typically it is a story involving dodgy dealing, wide-boy antics or an excessive level of partner testosterone told to illustrate the firm’s enduring image as aggressive risk takers. In fact, regular readers of this magazine’s Diary page will have found the firm’s image so ingrained that even the local restaurateurs are in on the joke.
Charitable observers see the firm as entrepreneurial and go-getting. The less kind refer to it as ruthless – a firm that finds it easier to pick up clients and talented lawyers than it does to keep them. Many who know the firm, even some inside it, would concede it is a reputation Halliwells has done much to earn, despite being on paper one of the most successful regional practices of the last five years.
