“The Manchester legal scene is more vibrant than we could ever have imagined” - meet the winners of the 2022 Manchester legal awards

FILLED WITH RECOGNITION, INCLUSION AND UNDERDOGS, THIS YEAR’S LEGAL AWARDS WAS A VIBRANT EVENING CELEBRATING MANCHESTER’S FINEST LEGAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

AFTER the countless challenges of the past couple of years, Manchester Law Society were thrilled to be back in person and celebrating the achievements of Manchester’s law firms at their first face-to-face event since the pandemic. Hosted at the prestigious Midland Hotel in central Manchester on June 9, the thirteenth Manchester Legal Awards recognised the masses of legal talent in the region. Celebrating firms of all sizes as well as the progression of the legal profession itself, the results were brimming with unexpected twists and turns. A representative from Harbour, the sponsor of the large law firm of the year award, attested that Manchester’s Law scene is energetic and thriving, and that a great night was had by all.

They said: “We’re visiting from London, and it’s great to see the Manchester legal scene is more vibrant than we could ever have imagined. It’s great to see people back and enjoying themselves and I think we are going to have to come to Manchester more often.” Paul Johnson, the president of the Manchester Law Society, said: “I am immensely proud to be standing here as President of Manchester Law Society and to have the opportunity to celebrate with you the incredible achievements and talent in our legal community.” “Yet again, this year has seen us receive a huge number of submissions and the standard has been truly exceptional. The quality of those submissions is testament to the fact that the Manchester legal profession is thriving and we all have much to celebrate and be proud of. It made for a very difficult day of judging at Squire Patton Boggs’ offices one Friday last month.” Read on to discover who the deserving winners were, and what the award meant to them.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD SPONSORED BY INCASE Winner - Nigel Shepherd, Mills & Reeve

On April 6 2022, the long-awaited Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020, which introduced ‘no fault’ divorce, came into law. It is the single most significant change in the divorce process for over half a century and Nigel has been campaigning for this landmark reform for over three decades.

He said: “It’s a real honour to receive this award. If you look at the sort of people who have received it in the past, there are some really big names of the Manchester legal scene so to be in the same ballpark as them is a real honour and a privilege. It’s my hometown, it’s my professional home, so to get that recognition from your peers is particularly special. You can’t do this kind of stuff on your own, without that support, it just wouldn’t have been possible.”

Nigel wanted thank his family in particular: “They’ve been putting up with me banging on about this for about as long as my daughters have been alive, and it’s an indication of how much they invested in it. When we heard that the legislation was going to go through they bought me a hoodie with ‘no fault divorce’ written on it.”

BUSINESS SUPPORT CHAMPIONS OF THE YEAR AWARD - SPONSORED BY FRESHFIELDS BRUCKHAUS DERINGER LLP Winners - Charlotte Dixon, Mills & Reeve

“This award means a lot to me, because I’ve worked really hard. It’s been a tough couple of years but I’ve enjoyed every minute, and thank you!”

Laura West, Anthony Collins Solicitors

“I’m so happy with this award, I’m absolutely so honoured to even be nominated, that the firm put me forward for it, it really sort of validated the hard work and the passion that I do give to Anthony Collins. You know, it’s my favourite, I love the place, it’s my favourite law firm that I’ve ever worked for. And I’m just overwhelmed, I love it, thank you. “

TRAINEE/PARALEGAL/APPRENTICE/ LEGAL EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR AWARD - SPONSORED BY MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY Winner - Jonathan Holling, JMW Solicitors LLP

³Oh it’s incredible, I mean, to be shortlisted I was gobsmacked so I’ve been saying to myself all day ‘just to be shortlisted is fine, if you dont win its okay’, and I’ve got palpitations now, I’ve not even had chance to have a drink. It means the world, it really does, JMW are a great firm, they pushed me to enter - they’ve been so supportive all the way through.”

SOLICITOR OF THE YEAR AWARD SPONSORED BY HARBOUR Winner - Moe Yassin, Beyond Law Group

“It means the world to me, I think it’s fantastic. What I hope this award represents is a bit of a challenge to the orthodoxy that you have to be in a big firm to be an expert lawyer. Hopefully this kind of shines a spotlight on the more niche and medium sized firms out there.”

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION CHAMPION/S OF THE YEAR SPONSORED BY APPLEYARD LEES Winner - Brabners LLP

“For us, this means the world. This is a really important milestone for us. I guess having some independent recognition as to progress that we’ve made, as a firm and as a profession, we’ve had a long way to go to catch up from an EDI perspective. We’re really keen to both reflect the clients that we serve and the communities that we’re in and it’s fair to say our profession has had quite a lot of work to do on that front. Whether it’s related to gender, BAME, LGBT, social mobility, there are a lot of facets to EDI, and we’ve worked really hard for all the right reasons to do far better. There’s a long way to go, and this is merely just a small step forward but this is an important recognition that the progress we are making is making a difference.”

CORPORATE/COMMERCIAL - TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD - SPONSORED BY INTERLINK RECRUITMENT

Winner - Eversheds Sutherland LLP

“It’s great! We’re obviously really proud. We’ve worked really hard as a team, we’ve had a great year, great deals, and we’re just really proud to be here and to win it.”

Highly Commended - Pannone Corporate

CRIME - TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD SPONSORED BY MATRIX 247 Winner - Slater Heelis

“We only set up the team two-and-a-half years ago, so to win this just means everything because the other competitors have been going for hundreds of years. The support from the team has been everything and I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Highly Commended - Burton Copeland LLP

EMPLOYMENT - TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD - SPONSORED BY MATRIX 247 Winner - Leigh Day

“We’re just absolutely delighted to win the award tonight. We have been working on a very big group claim that we won in the supreme court last year and our clients were absolutely delighted on the win. For us it was absolutely huge. We are one of the only claimant-only law firms in Manchester and everything that we do is to try and make sure that we get justice for everyone.”

FAMILY - TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD - SPONSORED BY SHARD CAPITAL Winner - McAllister Family Law

“Winning this award has been a complete accreditation to the team, who have worked desperately hard over the last 12 months. Our clients range from plumbers right the way through to multi millionaires. We represent clients from all backgrounds and provide first class service to all.”

LITIGATION - TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD - SPONSORED BY QUANTUMA Winner - Weightmans LLP

“It’s such fantastic recognition for the team. They’re such a wonderful team of people, really collaborative. This is for all of them, all their hard work and they really really deserve it. Absolutely fantastic bunch of people.” Highly Commended - Brabners LLP

PERSONAL INJURY/CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE - TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD - SPONSORED BY RMS PR Winner - Stephensons Solicitors LLP

“We are the underdogs of the category, and we are not selling ourselves short, but we were up against the biggest giants of clinical negligence teams in the North West and it’s such a Northern powerhouse up here for clin-neg work. We are such a small team, there’s only 22 of us, but we are quality over quantity and I want to thank the team and the judges. We are so overwhelmed by this, and I cannot wait to share this with the team.

We’re going to be partying in Wigan tomorrow!”

PRIVATE CLIENT - TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD - SPONSORED BY FIVE WEALTH LTD Winner - JMW Solicitors

“We’re beyond ecstatic. It just means so much to the team, for everything we’ve worked hard to achieve, so to have it recognised at Manchester Legal Awards is more than we could have ever hoped for.”

PROPERTY - TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD - SPONSORED BY LANDMARK INFORMATION GROUP Winner - Eversheds Sutherland LLP

“It’s absolutely fantastic. It’s a testament to a lot of hard work by a lot of people. It’s recognition for our peers, and some fantastic clients. We work on some brilliant transactions around the North West and Nationwide and it’s great, really pleased.” Highly Commended - Fieldfisher LLP

REGULATORY - TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD - SPONSORED BY THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS Winner - DWF Law LLP

“It means everything to our team. This is the third year in a row that we’ve won the award, and it means no less now than it did three years ago. We work so hard, on so many cases across the country, giving everything, so to win this is just really amazing recognition of that. We’re constantly changing all the work that we do and developing our practice, so it’s amazing.”

IN-HOUSE TEAM OF THE YEAR SPONSORED BY QUISS TECHNOLOGY Winner - Bank North

“It means masses to us. We’ve been spending so much time and energy building the best SME Bank during our mobilization period and to have a recognition of this alongside a time with such short resources is massive. We are so grateful. It’s genuinely humbling, to have the recognition for a small challenger bank like ourselves who have big ambitions. We’ve tried to build a bank whilst we’ve had a snap general election, Brexit, a pandemic, so it means so much to us because we’ve done so much in such a short period of time under such challenging circumstances.” Highly Commended - Boohoo Group plc

BARRISTER/QC OF THE YEAR AWARD SPONSORED BY MANCHESTER LAW SOCIETY Winner - Dr Christopher McNall, 18 St John Street Chambers

“It means a lot, not just for me, but it’s also for my excellent colleagues, especially chambers leadership. We’ve had an interesting couple of years, we’ve tried to move forward to a renaissance in chambers and I think this is actually just a small recognition of that.

It’s got my name on it, but you never achieve anything at the bar on your own.”

PARTNER OF THE YEAR AWARD SPONSORED BY LEGMARK Winner - Vikki Woodfine, DWF Law

“I genuinely did not expect to win it. I’m absolutely thrilled. It’s amazing because when I spoke to the judges this year, there was a real massive focus on finance and clients, which we do really well in anyway. But, actually the focus was on what I bring to the team and the firm and recruitment. They were really interested to hear about diverse recruitment, as well as the trauma work I’ve been doing with our team, and counselling. I actually think it’s amazing that it’s not all just about money and claims, which is what everyone thinks lawyers are about. A lot of what I discussed with them was completely different so to win it on an account of what I was interviewed on is just surprising.”

BARRISTERS’ CHAMBERS OF THE YEAR AWARD - SPONSORED BY WEIGHTMANS LLP Winner - St John’s Buildings Chambers

“I’m very proud on behalf of St John’s Building, all the staff and all the barristers there make the place a great place to work. It’s a very happy place to work and a very productive place to work. We enjoy ourselves very much.”

LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR - SMALL (1-5 PARTNERS NATIONALLY) AWARD SPONSORED BY LAWSHARE Winner - Olliers Solicitors

“We’re absolutely delighted at Olliers to have won this award. It’s a testament to the entire team, all the hard work and dedication that every single member of the team has put in throughout the year, so we are absolutely delighted.”

LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR MEDIUM (6-20 PARTNERS NATIONALLY) AWARD - SPONSORED BY MFL INSURANCE GROUP LTD Winner - Beyond Law Group

“It’s only our fifth birthday this week, so it’s a massive achievement for the team. It’s not about one person or one business, it’s about three businesses, and the team has been absolutely fantastic so it’s for them really. I’m glad to be taking something home for them.”

Highly Commended - CFG Law

LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR - LARGE (20+ PARTNERS NATIONALLY) AWARD - SPONSORED BY HARBOUR Winner - TLT LLP

“We’ve been up for this twice in the last three years and not got it, and we probably thought we should have got it. It means everything, this shows what we’ve done, we started in Manchester in 2013 from a standing start and now we’re up there and I think we’re punching with the big boys in town, and this just proves it. I’m so proud of our people, so proud of our partners, it’s brilliant.”

Other notable sponsors for the evening were: Main sponsors – Interlink Recruitment, Judging Day Sponsors – Squire Patton Boggs, Drinks Reception Sponsors – Docutech Office Solutions, President’s Charity of the Year – Caritas Aspire Band Sponsors – Legal RSS

To find out more about Manchester Legal Awards, visit www.manchesterlegalawards.co.uk.

To find out more about the Manchester Law Society, visit www.manchesterlawsociety.org.uk