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Our view....
At one time or another it looked as
though Robert Muckle might merge with any one of the other major
Newcastle firms, but their strong performance of late has proved they
were right to go it alone.
One headline-grabbing deal was the
£62m asset transfer to the North Music Trust to build an international
music venue in Gateshead. Their commercial property
department also pulled off a bit of a coup by securing the 'other' BBC (that's Balfour
Beatty Construction) as a new client earlier this year.
They are on course to meet their
stated goal of 15% year on year growth over the four years from 2003, and have
made some impressive lateral hires from Lovells, CMS Cameron McKenna and
Beachcrofts. And in July 2004
they made their first lateral equity partner hire, by poaching the
highly rated Andrew Davison from Eversheds.
Now they just have to hang on to
them. Robert Muckle's lawyer retention rates have been pretty
miserable (senior partner Ian Gilthorpe was heard to remark recently
that they seemed to have trained half the lawyers in the north-east),
but that seems to be largely the luck of the draw in a turbulent
recruitment market rather than indicative of any problem with the firm
themselves.
The firm won an award for the quality of its
training at the Trainee Solicitors' Training and Recruitment Awards 2004, and
are also prepared to do their
bit for society - they belong to the Solicitors' Pro Bono Group and
rack up around £150,000 worth of work for various charities per annum.
Which is probably a reflection of why they're seen as one of the
friendliest places to work in the North.
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