Herbert Smith LLP is pleased to announce the official opening of its Belfast office. The firm’s new office is located at 3 Cromac Quay, on the site of the former Belfast Gasworks, one of the city’s most famous landmarks.
Herbert Smith announced plans to set up an office in Belfast focused on large scale document-intensive aspects of litigation, arbitration and regulatory investigations in November 2010. It is the first leading international law firm to establish a UK-based operation to conduct this type of work.
A major consideration for choosing Belfast was Northern Ireland’s pool of high quality graduates and professionals combined with a significantly lower cost base in Belfast compared with London and other Herbert Smith offices.
Herbert Smith’s Belfast office comprises a high quality legal team who are fully integrated with the firm’s service to clients across its international network. The office currently has a total of 26 full-time employees, including 19 fee earners. The legal team comprises a mix of qualified lawyers and legal assistants. The vast majority of the team has been hired from the local market or are qualified lawyers from Northern Ireland who have trained in England and have now returned home to join us in Belfast.
The office is led by the management team comprising office director Libby Jackson, legal quality manager Lisa McLaughlin and operations manager Aiya Boranbayeva.
Herbert Smith is pleased to report that client demand for the use of the Belfast office is such that a further 12 fee earners will join the firm in the coming months.
Future office growth will depend on business need, but in addition to the 38 jobs already created, Herbert Smith expects to create a further 49 high quality jobs in Belfast over the next 5 years. Invest Northern Ireland has offered £734,000 of support towards the creation of these jobs which will generate £3.1m annually in salaries and benefits in Northern Ireland by 2016.
In addition, subject to business demands, Herbert Smith may decide to create up to a further 51 jobs as part of our five year plan. Invest Northern Ireland has offered £369,750 to support the creation of these additional 51 roles in Belfast. This would increase the annual salaries and benefits in Northern Ireland to £4.7m by 2016.
Libby Jackson, director of the Belfast office commented:
“Opening an office in Belfast has been a great experience for the firm. We are particularly pleased with the very talented team of high quality lawyers and law graduates we have recruited. Our decision to expand the team further so quickly is due to high demand and the extremely positive response from our clients to the excellence of the legal work being done in Belfast.
As a firm, we are enjoying being part of Northern Ireland’s legal community and have every confidence in the future growth of our operation here. We are also grateful to Invest Northern Ireland, whose support has been, and continues to be, much appreciated.”
Northern Ireland’s Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said:
“I recently visited Herbert Smith’s offices in Belfast, and was greatly impressed with how rapidly the firm has ramped up its operations so global clients can be served from this region.
In creating additional high quality jobs delivering salaries above the Northern Ireland private sector average, Herbert Smith has given a clear endorsement of the Northern Ireland proposition which can only further strengthen the legal sector here.”
Alastair Hamilton, Chief Executive of Invest Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland’s regional economic development agency, added:
“The initial Herbert Smith project announced last year was immensely important, particularly as Invest NI has been actively targeting the legal sector for such quality investment. Clearly, this further, significant expansion indicates that Northern Ireland has exceeded the firm’s expectations, particularly in terms of skills availability.
Moving forward, Invest NI is committed to working with Herbert Smith to ensure its growth plans are fully realised and that the associated benefits to the skills base, legal sector and economy are maximised.”
