Manchester’s ‘middle tier’ firms believe they are on a roll. While the corporate departments of the national firms have been reeling from the dearth of big ticket corporate work in the early part of this decade, many of their counterparts from the strata below have been taking the opportunity of the consequent slack in the recruitment market to make strides up the legal food chain.
This is a scenario that is playing out across the major regional legal centres. The national firms, the mantra runs, are moving on to bigger and better things, in London and overseas, and they are leaving a gap in the market for firms in the next tier down to exploit.
