Paul Firth Aims To Unlock Further Growth Within Firm's Largest Office

National law firm, Irwin Mitchell, has appointed Paul Firth as its Regional Managing Partner for its Sheffield office as part of plans to boost growth across both its business and personal service lines.

Paul, who was Office Managing Partner at DLA’s Sheffield office for 14 years and Regional Managing Partner for the firm’s seven offices outside of London between 2006 and 2009, joined Irwin Mitchell as a Partner earlier this year.

As the figure-head for Irwin Mitchell in Sheffield, Paul in this newly created role will coordinate and help lead the office’s growth strategy with the aim of increasing market share across the region.

“Irwin Mitchell’s Sheffield office is the firm’s largest and I’m extremely proud to be appointed Regional Managing Partner, particularly during such an exciting time for the firm,” explained Paul.

“Despite the tough economic conditions and the fact that the legal sector is undergoing fundamental change, Irwin Mitchell is ideally placed to take advantage within both the business and personal legal services arena.

“Not only does the firm boast nationally recognised teams in a broad range of areas, since my arrival I have been impressed with the innovative, ‘can-do’ culture that exists.  This is a powerful combination and I am very confident that it will provide a strong platform in order to ensure that the Sheffield office can continue to flourish.”

In addition to his role at Irwin Mitchell, Paul was recently appointed Chairman of Creative Sheffield. His other positions include being a Pro-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield, and the Chairman of the Children's Hospital Charity in Sheffield.

Commenting on Paul’s appointment, John Pickering, Group Chief Executive of Irwin Mitchell, said:  “When Paul joined us earlier in the year it was a strong signal of our intent and reinforced our commitment to build an ambitious senior team capable of developing our firm still further at an exciting time for the legal sector as a whole.

“Our Sheffield office is our largest and with 40 Partners and over 1,100 members of staff, Paul is the ideal candidate to lead it forward. He has been on this growth journey before and understands the high quality legal advice required by our clients, whether they be individuals or businesses. He is also incredibly well connected across the city, not just in legal circles, but also through his work with the University, Creative Sheffield and the Children’s Hospital Charity.

“We are extremely excited and confident about our future potential and we believe Paul will be an important figure-head in Sheffield. I look forward to working with him in this new role and I am very confident that he can play a big part in helping us unlock future growth across South Yorkshire and beyond.”

Irwin Mitchell’s Sheffield office recorded its best ever performance in the Legal 500 directory recently where the firm was recognised for its significant growth in business law. Here the commercial litigation and employment teams were ranked number one in South Yorkshire. The firm also retained its longstanding ranking as the leading law firm in personal injury and clinical negligence, whilst also taking the top spot in family services.

In the Chambers UK 2012 report, the firm in Yorkshire was also ranked second in the dispute resolution and employment categories, and rose up the rankings in the corporate/mergers and acquisitions and real estate sectors. The firm retained its number one spot for both clinical negligence and personal injury with the family team moving up from second to first in the region.

Irwin Mitchell in Sheffield was recently named Property Law Firm of the Year by Insider magazine. The award recognised the team’s work on a number of high profile property deals involving Hallam Land Management, Henry Boot Developments, Shepherd Developments, NG Bailey and Sheffield Hallam University.

Nationally, the firm also won an award for its innovative corporate strategy and was also named in the Industry Pioneers category at the annual ‘FT Innovative Lawyers’ awards in 2011.