Shoosmiths has plans to double its headcount in Manchester as the firm prepares to move into its new office in Spinningfields.
Currently, Shoosmiths has 177 members of staff in Manchester but plans to grow the team to 300 within the next three years.
The firm’s Manchester head Vaqas Farooq told The Lawyer that the growth would be made across all five of the office’s key practice groups. These are commercial, corporate, and real estate as well as the firm’s recovery group and private client group.
The expansion plans comes as the Manchester team prepares to move into the Allied London owned XYZ Building in Spinningfields. The firm committed to occupying 32,000 sq ft over two floors of the building and intends to move in by the end of 2016.
Farooq said: “The new office will be open and agile with about a third of our working floor given up to collaboration space. There has been an evolution of law firms from cellular offices to open plan and for me the next step is agile.”
The use of ‘collaboration space’ is designed to encourage lawyers to move around the building and work with members of different teams within the office. The working areas will range from traditional private rooms for meetings with clients to outdoor garden areas.
Last year Shoosmiths’ turnover broke £100m for the first time after 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.
Earlier this week The Lawyer revealed that US firm Shearman & Sterling is consulting on plans to introduce agile working across its London office.
The firm has had an informal system in place for a number of years but is currently reviewing its agile working policy in London after its US associates were granted the ability to work from home two days a month.