Business And Private Client Growth Recognised By Report

Law firm Irwin Mitchell's impressive growth in Manchester has been reflected with more recommendations and rankings than ever in the Legal 500; an independent guide to law published this week.

Irwin Mitchell's Manchester office was ranked top in three areas of law, Personal Injury (Claimant), Clinical Negligence (Claimant) and Debt Recovery. The firm's continued expansion also saw the business side of the firm recognised with the Commercial Litigation team, Corporate Restructuring & Insolvency team and Commercial Property team all ranked for the first time.

Regional Managing Partner Grahame Codd said: "We are pleased with the firm's position at the top of these prestigious lists. We have maintained our high standards on the personal injury and clinical negligence fronts, but we are particularly delighted to see that our business partners, many of whom are relatively new to the firm, are being recognised for their excellent work over the past year.

"The results are testament to the hard work and expertise of our solicitors and we will continue to grow and build on the excellent foundation we have worked so hard to establish. We are committed to providing a first class range of legal services in the North West for both private clients and business clients."

Rankings

The Personal Injury team was described as "one of the best-respected firms for catastrophic injury and asbestos claims" with the Legal 500 praising Irwin Mitchell for its proactive approach, pushing for interim payments to fund rehabilitation for clients. The firm has also won the Rehabilitation Initiative of the Year award for the third year in a row.

Irwin Mitchell is also listed as a "main player" in the clinical negligence field with partner and head of team Lindsay Wise recommended for brain damage and spinal cord injury cases; also Francesca Dowse for cancer and birth, spinal and brain injury cases.

Many of the Business and Private Client teams were ranked for the first time and Codd admits that the partners are enthusiastic about the prospects for the future, aiming to bring in more work to continue the firm's impressive growth over the past year.

John Lord, described in the Legal 500 as a 'great lawyer, with commercial poise', leads the Commercial Litigation, Dispute Resolution and Debt Recovery division and is commended for bringing strong clients in from the leisure and brewery sector to add to the “already impressive client base".
 
The 'accessible and knowledgeable' Ed Cotton, heading up the Employment team, has helped to increase the firm's profile in the region resulting in an improved ranking for 2010.

Elizabeth Tait, heading the family team is described as "very experienced" and promotes the use of collaborative law.

Both the Corporate Recovery and Insolvency team and the Commercial Property team were ranked for the first time with Chris Jones and Andrew Bell both recommended.

Dan Stowers, partner heading the Crime, Fraud and Licensing section is referenced for his leading work on several complex and high value fraud cases.