Salary wars, an influx of Dublin firms, rare lateral hires and office face-lifts – Sophie Evans reports on the swift and serious transformation of Belfast’s legal market
Northern Ireland’s lawyers speak in the understated, often euphemistic tones of a community that is accustomed to talking around sensitive subjects. One managing partner’s reference to the seismic shifts taking place in Belfast’s legal scene as “a process of change” typifies this conservative market’s low-key interpretation of the rapid and sometimes painful evolution of the region’s legal sector. But there is a younger generation of partners, many of them returnees with a City background, who recognise that the shape of Belfast’s legal market is undergoing a transformation that will see some current leaders left behind.
