According to the firm’s Manchester head Vaqas Farooq, the growth will be across all of the firm’s key practice groups – commercial, corporate, real estate, its recovery group and private client group.

The plan comes as the Manchester team prepares to move into the Allied London-owned XYZ Building in Spinningfields by the end of the year. Mr Farooq said that the new office will be ‘open and agile,’ with working areas ranging from traditional private meeting rooms to outdoor garden areas. About a third of the working floor will be given over to ‘collaboration space,’ which is intended to encourage lawyers to move around the building and work with members of different teams within the office.

Shoosmiths’ turnover broke £100m for the first time last year, increasing 10.4 per cent from £92.98m to £102.7m. The firm’s profit per equity partner also increased by 44 per cent, from £290,000 to £416,000.

Source: The Lawyer