Manchester Solicitors & Other Professional Services

Business in Manchester is growing constantly and more then ever before, despite the current economic climate. There has been investment from national and international companies alike entering into the region coupled with a booming and confident entrepreneurial and enterprising culture from local Manchester companies and start ups.

There has been significant investment and business transacted in Manchester over the last five years from all these channels leading to a major rise in professional services. This has been exemplified visually for all to see with focussed developments and bases for professional companies including Spinningfields off Deansgate and modern commercial property projects in Manchester.

The number and diversity of professionals has led netwotking in Manchaster to become a key activity, with many networking events and local business networking groups forming such as BNI North West. Online resources have emerged to provide interactive directories and online networking to help identify suitable Manchester professionals.

There are now over 8,000 accountants in Manchester, when including both chartered accountants and management accountants. All the ‘big four’ accountancy firms now operate in Manchester, KPMG, PricewaterHouseCoopers, Ernst and Young, Deloitte all have set up significant regional headquarters or offices in Manchester.

The legal faction has also evolved fast rate with over 2,000 solicitors in Manchaster. Some local ‘home grown’ solicitors in Manchester now achieve national acclaim; Pannone and Cobbetts being fine examples. Many Manchester solicitors now have extensive North West operations with four or five offices, for example Eversheds and Halliwells.

Services for Manchester accountants and Manchaster solicitors have probably risen due to the level of larger North West and Manchester firms floating on the stock market and a greater amount of management buyouts and acquisitive moods of Manchester companies that look to continuously take over firms to consolidate or diversify into market sectors.  The result of this is a greater demand for corporate finance, legal advice, management restructuring and private equity to enables these processes, all requiring experienced and expert advisors from both accountancy and legal sectors.

For accountants, larger workforces demanded more in depth payroll systems and management accounts. For solicitors, company and commercial law and employment law departments grew as services increased. With the recent relocation of the BBC and media houses arriving in Manchester, the need for IT and media law also heightened.

Indeed, it is not just traditional professional sectors that have grown, but creative and media sectors in Manchester; even without the BBC. There have been rafts of advertising agencies, marketing and public relations agencies that have opened their doors. Communications in Manchester have become vital for professional service and commercial outfits to convey their intent and offerings in Manchester, spurring more sophisticated and multi channel marketing campaigns. Advertising and media have become respected and recognised professional services in Manchester in their own right.

Returning to traditional professional services, the banking sector in Manchester has simultaneously risen because of company takeovers and restructures too, with particular emphasis on Investment Banking. The number of business bank managers in Manchester has grown dramatically, with managers offering services for SMEs and corporate outfits. Investment advisers and Financial Advisers in Manchester have also boomed with advisors offering solutions to maximise companies’ efficiencies in tax, profit sharing, directorships and share options. They provided financial advice and stockbrokers’ services for directors and business owners’ personal wealth management such as inheritance tax, tax planning and personal investments.

Busy commercial activity always calls for the services of insurance brokers. There are many commercial insurance companies in Manchester now ranging from local insurance brokers through to branches of national insurance brokers including Hiscox. Professional indemnity insurance has naturally become critical given the number of professionals serving clients in Manchester now. Employer liability insurance, contents and health insurance plans have become more standard practice. One growth sector in particular is risk management for business continuity. Insurance brokers often provide directors with high net worth insurance for personal reasons also.

The new office openings of the professional service companies boosted the commercial property arena in Manchester. New office space, industrial and retail outlets have all opened exponentially in recent years, in locations across Deansgate, Piccadilly, Ancoats and historical business streets including Portland Street and Princess Street. Commercial estate agents in Manchester have expanded their sales force and national agencies including Knight Frank and King Sturge have joined in.

Skilled architecture was required to design new modern offices and commercial property space, opening up good opportunities for local Manchester architects, such as Ian Simpson through to nationals including BDF, to engage in ambitious projects.

Quantity and chartered surveyors have become major professional forces, with certain property firms offering all round property consultancy services. As the number of business executives expanded in Manchester, the property firms noted a need for more city centre apartments and developments continued only until recently when the residential market stagnated. Property in Manchester was one of the hardest to be hit with the over supply of city centre apartments due to the developers over optimism.

Workforces of companies and professional services in Manchester must have risen steadily and impressively for the last ten years and only deterred currently by the harsh economic environment.

This opened up another weighted professional sector in recruitment and employment. There are now similar numbers of recruitment consultants and recruitment agencies as there are solicitors and accountants. Sector specific recruitment consultants have emerged, that target just accountants or solicitors or finance professionals. Others solely cater for executive recruitment or IT sales recruitment and focus purely on headhunting services for the right position.

Consultancy services as a whole are now vital institutes in Manchester. These range from personnel related such as human resource (HR) consultants and training providers through to management consultants that concentrate on performance management, organisational behaviour and leadership management. Business consultants provide valuable duties of looking at companies’ strategy and forming new plans, again sometimes for specific sectors. The institute of Business Consulting now has over 1300 member across the North West.

IT is now integrated in virtually every Manchester business, making it just as important as legal or accountancy services in some respects. Subsequently IT consultants and IT support are now high in demand, whether it is for permanent or remote support.

The credit crunch may have arrived, but given the robustness of many of these professional firms in Manchester and the concentration of business activity and key national players that have bases in the region; the service industry will not be moving far. The rise of traditional industries and emergence of new professional services in Manchester has created a wider market now that can serve and feed from each other. The abundance of advisors also, will now continually attract start ups, SMEs and corporate business to the city as a range of support services are readily available to choose between. There will always likely to be a professional service available in Manchester specialising in a required field to match a businesses’ specific demand.