Irwin Mitchell [1] today announced it will open a new office in Cambridge – the second regional start-up this year – as the latest stage in its expansion plans.
Cambridge will be the firm’s ninth regional office when it opens its doors in June, with the news coming just a week after its newest office opened for business in Southampton.
The announcement is the latest step in Irwin Mitchell’s strategic growth plans and follows on from news that it had secured a £60m funding facility from three major banks to fund expansion and on top of a major recruitment programme which has seen 36 Partner-level recruits join the business since the start of 2013.
Serious injury specialist and Partner Neil Whiteley will relocate from the firm’s Sheffield office to become Regional Managing Partner for the new office in Cambridge, which will have teams in place from day one covering serious injury work and military law, with the latter led by Partner Simon Harrington.
Partner Rosemary Giles, who specialises in asbestos related disease cases, will also relocate to the new office from London shortly after the opening, to accelerate the expansion of the business that her team have been building in the Cambridge and East Anglian region for some time.
Additional experts in family law and clinical negligence will be in place soon after launch, with the firm also confirming that it intends to add specialists in Court of Protection work and public law in the near future as well.
Andrew Tucker, Group Chief Executive for Irwin Mitchell, said: “Regional growth and development is a key component of our strategy and this will be our second new office this year. It is another statement of our intent to expand our business significantly so more clients can access the range of high quality services which we offer.
“We have assessed the market in Cambridge carefully for some time before we took this decision. We already have a growing presence in the local market and clearly, we would not be making this move unless we were confident we can repeat the significant success we have had in opening other regional offices.
“We see Cambridge as an important regional centre with a vibrant economy where we believe we will rapidly build a share of the market quickly, building our team with recruitment locally.
“We expect Cambridge to become another significant region for us as our business continues to expand and this is a further signal of our intention to build on our strong financial base and drive forward with our strategy.”
Neil Whiteley, Regional Managing Partner for Cambridge, added: “We already provide specialist legal advice to a large number of clients in Cambridge, the south east and East Anglia.
“Having looked at the local market, we feel we have something different to offer clients, who will be able to access the wide range of legal services we provide, in particular the significant and wide range of expertise that Irwin Mitchell offers in comparison to many other legal businesses in this sector.
“Cambridge is the next step in Irwin Mitchell’s regional development strategy. We see the local market as being exciting and progressive and we feel our offering will be well suited to it and of real interest to clients. “
The news comes in the same month that Irwin Mitchell opened its doors in Southampton, through a new regional office led by Regional Managing Partner Guy Darlaston. The firm also successfully opened a new office in Bristol in 2010, adding to existing offices in Birmingham, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield. Associate firm Irwin Mitchell Scotland also has an office in Glasgow.