unLTD’s Ash Birch sat down with Kerry Russell, Carys Thompson and Ryan Fitzpatrick, partners at full-service law firm Shakespeare Martineau, to talk about their ambitious plans in South Yorkshire, why they love working in the area, and the firm’s inclusive and ethical culture…
While Shakespeare Martineau’s sister brand and consumer law specialists, Lime Solicitors, has been operating in Sheffield for around ten years, it wasn’t until intellectual property law expert, Kerry Russell, relocated to Doncaster in 2021, that the commercial law wing of Shakespeare Martineau had a presence in the region.
Historically, Lime Solicitors had been a division of Shakespeare Martineau, but a wider restructure meant that the two entities now sit side by side under the house of brands, Ampa Group, and they currently share an office space in Sheffield’s Omega Court, which is where we meet for today’s reflections on the last couple of years since Kerry’s move.
Kerry trained with Shakespeare Martineau and has been with the firm for over 13 years, working initially out of the Leicester office, before moving to their Birmingham head office. When she took the big decision to uproot her life around the time of the Covid lockdowns, she quickly saw the opportunities for the firm in her new home.
Kerry said: “When I moved my main base to Sheffield, we started to look at the market and to see who else is around here, what kind of legal services people in South Yorkshire need, and we got quite excited about it.
“We quickly recruited Carys (Thompson), a commercial lawyer who works in my team and is now the head of the Sheffield office, as well as Ryan (Fitzpatrick) a corporate lawyer who deals with mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, private equity and healthcare transactions, and Catherine Rustomji, who does charities governance work.
“The firm is really invested in Sheffield – an area in which we see a lot of potential – and we’re continuing to grow through our recruitment.”
Over the last couple of years, the team’s main aim has been to get involved locally wherever possible. By spending time supporting the Master Cutler’s Challenge, sponsoring Sheffield Digital, providing free drop ins at Sheffield Technology Park, providing legal clinics through Business Sheffield, giving seminars at the AMRC and organising Curry Clubs through the firm, they have successfully embedded themselves within the community and raised awareness of the brand in Sheffield.
“We’re nothing without the people that work here, and it’s all about getting the right fit of people, who match our values.”
“There’s a vibe about Sheffield,” says Kerry. “A lot of people are willing to travel here and have meetings or go to events in the city.
“As a firm, we are really successful in the locations we want to be in. For example, in Birmingham, Shakespeare Martineau is a really well-known brand, and we want to replicate that in Sheffield.
“We now have a really solid investment plan and a lot of people have bought into the idea of having a strong Yorkshire presence.”
That investment plan will be heavily centred around recruitment, and they see no reason why their current team of seven won’t have at least doubled by the end of this year.
“Our ambition is to become full service within Sheffield,” explains Carys. “A big part of that is recruitment and we are talking to people in other practice areas to complement what we’ve already got.
“People in Sheffield want to be instructed by somebody who is well regarded in Sheffield and South Yorkshire, so our main focus will be on recruiting people who are already practising in this area, and that want to join us.”
Ryan added: “We’ll also be working closely with the two excellent universities. We’re happy to do seminars and presentations to the students to explain our core values and beliefs, and I think that will be very appealing to them.
Kerry continued: “As a firm, we are really good at recognising that we’re nothing without the people that work here, and it’s all about getting the right fit of people, who match our values.”
Diversity and inclusivity are extremely important to the brand as an employer. These values are fundamentally important to Kerry, who, when working in the Birmingham office in 2017, set up More in Common, a diversity and inclusivity group that acts as an internal network for supporting diversity and inclusivity and underpins many of the firm’s values.
“My whole ethos with More in Common was to let our people know that we want you for who you uniquely are. You don’t need to look like a lawyer. You don’t need to act like everybody else expects you to act. You will do your best work if you are completely yourself.
“We took that idea and ran with it and it’s now massive within the firm. I think it’s been one of our biggest strengths.
“The reason I started More in Common was because of an experience I had when I briefly left Shakespeare Martineau for another firm. This other firm had loads of awards for diversity, but when I went there, I had to explain to one of the senior partners how I could be married, but not to a man.
“I really love working in Sheffield. It’s a little bit more face to face. A little bit friendlier, and it has got that kind of village feel to it, whereby even though it’s a big place, it feels smaller because you have a really supportive community.”
“I just thought that there’s no point in having awards if your day to day experience of that job is that you have to explain to somebody what it means to be gay. More in Common was about making sure that we celebrate differences and educate each other about what is important to our identity.
“That might be teaching people about celebrations during Ramadan or learning about what it means if you’re transitioning gender, or what it means if you’ve got a disability. We really encourage people to share stories and to bring their “whole self” to the firm every day.
“These types of conversations are becoming more prevalent in workplaces nowadays, but we were ahead of the curve back in 2017. It means that we’ve already recruited and retained so many great people from diverse backgrounds, and that it something as a firm we are really proud of.
“It’s made the world of difference to the firm, but it wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t supported from the top. When our current CEO first joined, I got a call from her PA saying Sarah (Walker-Smith) wants to come and meet up with me and talk about More in Common. It was only Sarah’s second day in the office and one of the first things she wanted to do was to talk to me about how she could support what we were doing.”
Carys added: “The message we’re trying to get across is that while we are new to Sheffield, we’re not a new firm and we’re not the same as every other firm.
“When it comes to recruitment, we’re looking for the right people. We want to work with people who share the same values.”
Another thing that sets the firm apart is their B Corp certification, a designation that means the business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to sustainable supply chain practices and input materials.
Ryan said: “To achieve B Corp status, you are required to have the highest client service standards and to consider the impact of business decisions on our people, communities and the environment; ensuring that good business can be both purposeful and profitable. We want our clients to be assured that we not only provide outstanding service and advice, but that we do it responsibly, which distinguishes us from the competition.
“The other feedback that we’ve had from clients is that we’re competitive on our prices, so you’re getting the same expertise that you would expect from a national law firm but we’re flexible on the cost and sensitive to the local market.”
“That comes from years of advising businesses based in Sheffield and throughout South Yorkshire.”
Carys and Ryan have lots of experience working in Sheffield, but for Kerry, moving to the region has changed her career trajectory in ways she couldn’t have imagined.
One industry she particularly loves working with is Sheffield’s burgeoning tech start-up market, a feeling that both Carys and Ryan share, leading them to set the aim of becoming the go to legal firm for Sheffield’s tech and digital community.
Kerry said: “Sheffield is very supportive of its tech industry; in ways that are not always replicated in other cities in the UK.
“For me, there’s a big difference between working in Birmingham and working in Sheffield. I liked working in Birmingham, but I really love working in Sheffield. It’s a little bit more face to face. A little bit friendlier, and it has got that kind of village feel to it, whereby even though it’s a big place, it feels smaller because you have a really supportive community.”
