A few short months ago, the mere mention of Addleshaw Booth & Co’s London office was likely to bring a tinge of colour to most of the firm’s partners. While national rivals DLA and Pinsent Curtis had both managed to secure decently-sized and well-regarded offices through aggressive hiring and merger respectively and with Eversheds and Hammonds, despite teething troubles, also making inroads into the market, Addleshaws was in danger of being left behind in the capital.

In 2003 the firm had just 19 partners – 15% of its total partnership – based full-time in London, against 107 at DLA and 52 at Pinsents. It was, in the words, of the firm’s own managing partner, ‘a two-centre firm’ – Manchester and Leeds.