Opportunities in Leeds
The biggest legal centre outside of London
The UK’s favourite city 1
The ‘Knightsbridge of the North’ 2
Yes, we’re talking Leeds - a great place to play as well as work.
Leeds is the place to be at the moment – just consider the change and developments of recent years. Real estate has been booming and, with the area running parallel to the River Aire marked for massive redevelopment and projects such as City Island and West Point (the former Royal Mail Building) underway, the trend looks set to continue. The fashion stakes in Leeds are pretty high too with a recent survey naming Leeds as the leading shopping venue after London.
For those of you who have not visited Leeds recently, you can forget traditional images of flat caps and country vets. In their place, you’ll find a new vibrant business centre attracting international business and the brightest and best professionals in the land. If proof is needed, the facts speak for themselves – Yorkshire boasts a £65 billion economy, a 2.3 million strong workforce and 260, 000 businesses (including 1,100 foreign-owned companies employing some 130,000 people). The legal scene is no exception. Indeed, Leeds is second only to London in terms of fees generated and numbers of lawyers.3
And, if you need celebrity endorsement, it has that too. Lord of the Rings actress Liv Tyler (who’s married to a Leeds-born musician) names Leeds as one of her favourite places to be and is reportedly set to become a member of the Leeds’ New Headingley Social Club. The Club’s £3 membership fee shouldn’t stretch her budget too far.
And what about working there? Well, another pretty impressive statistic is that 3 firms with a presence in Leeds were named by the Sunday Times as among the top 100 best places to work in 2004 – by comparison, the same number of firms with a London presence also made the grade.4 Currently, Leeds boasts a relatively buoyant legal market which has seen tremendous growth, at least across the top and middle layer of firms in the Leeds and surrounding areas.
- Are you working in Leeds and wondering what other legal opportunities may be available to you?
- Are you living in Leeds and wondering about how best to go about finding a job there?
- Perhaps you are considering returning to Leeds or are thinking about relocating there? In this case, you’ll have other considerations aside from just finding a job.
Well, we’ll answer your questions and more. We’ve put together a pretty comprehensive guide to what it’s like to work and live in Leeds - we’ve got the low-down on which firms are expanding and who they want to hire, we’ve researched the entertainment scene and have included guidelines on where to find property and schools to suit your budget. To read on, just click on the links below...
And finally...
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1 As voted by Condé Nast Traveller magazine readers in 2003
2 Survey conducted by property and retail consultancy, Experian
3 The Legal 500
4 DLA Piper, Eversheds and Cobbetts named in the Sunday Times ‘Best Places to Work’ list for 2004
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