Birmingham - Business Law, Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Law.
With a population well over 1 million, Birmingham is the biggest of the core cities in England and is often regarded as the second biggest city in the entire United Kingdom. It is the hub of the West Midlands conurbation, which has a population of nearly 2.3 million. During the Industrial Revolution, Birmingham functioned as a powerhouse and was nicknamed “City of a Thousand Trades”. Today, the economic focus has shifted from manufacturing and engineering to the service sector, which currently account for nearly 80% of the city's economic output. In 2003, 97% of the city's economic growth stemmed from this sector.
Among the services for which Birmingham is famous is legal expertise and you can find a rich profusion of different law firms and legal professionals in Birmingham and the West Midlands conurbation. Birmingham is a major financial and administrative centre and the city's central business district has the second largest concentration of administrative and private sector office-based employment in England – it is second only to central London.
Lloyds Bank (now Lloyds TSB) and the Midland Bank (now HSBC Bank plc) were both founded in Birmingham, making it home to two of Britain's so called “big four” banks. With Lloyds being present in Birmingham since 1765 and the Midland Bank being around since 1836, it is not hard to understand why Birmingham is home to such a rich array of world renowned law firms focused on Business Law, Commercial Law, Bankruptcy Law and related areas. Birmingham's banking, finance and insurance sectors currently employs over 100,000 employees directly and this naturally creates huge spin-off effects for the entire region when it comes to legal services and legal expertise. Birmingham is especially celebrated for its strengths when it comes to accountancy and commercial law and the Birmingham Law Society is currently comprised by roughly 2,500 practicing members in over 300 different member firms.
The Birmingham Law Society is the oldest professional association of solicitors in England and Wales, and also the largest one, except of course for the national Law Society of England and Wales which, unlike BLS, is not a local society. In addition to serving its members, Birmingham Law Society aim to provide consumers with valuable guides and information about how to get the best out of your solicitor. They will for instance offer free advice about how to prepare yourself for the first meeting with your solicitor, what to think about before you pick a certain solicitor, and what your options are if you find yourself unhappy with the service you are receiving. The Birmingham Law Society was founded in 1818, when Birmingham had no more than 54 practicing lawyers and no courts of its own. The original members of the society were less than 20 and they had their meetings are the Royal Hotel in Temple Row. As the society grew, it had to find bigger quarters and in 1934 it finally relocated to its current premises in Temple Street. This is also where you will find the Birmingham Law Library, which has been run by the society since 1832.
