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Location Leeds: a better environment for business

Essential guide to the Leeds commercial property market, showcasing the city's premier business locations. Features out of town and city centre offices, retail and industrial premises. Published in association with Yorkshire Business Insider.

Leeds:The Facts
the key facts

Statistical overview of the economy of Leeds and the city region including information on key sectors, workforce, population and output.

Business in Leeds:
the key facts

Detailed information on the Leeds economy covering everything from financial services to the media, workforce and skills also providing an overview of the Leeds lifestyle including education, leisure and healthcare.

Holbeck Urban Village: a creative location for business

A fast developing location for creative and digital media businesses close to the centre of Leeds. Includes case studies of companies based in the area.

Government departments and agencies

Detailed report is available setting out the advantages of Leeds as a location for government departments and agencies. Includes case studies.

Shared Service Centres

Detailed report on advantages of Leeds as a location for shared services centres. Includes studies of shared services operations based in Leeds.

Making it in Leeds

Detailed report on the manufacturing sector in Leeds, including case studies on some of the city's leading manufacturers.

Conference Leeds

Guide to 290 venues for conferences, seminars and training events in Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Pennine Yorkshire.

Legal services

Leeds is the UK’s most important legal centre outside the capital. According to The UK Legal 500: “Leeds has a sophisticated and highly competitive legal market, second only to London.”

Six of the UK’s largest 25 law firms have a significant presence in Leeds: DLA Piper, Eversheds, Pinsent Masons, Addleshaw Goddard, Irwin Mitchell and Hammonds.

There are around 150 law firms operating in Leeds, employing 8,400 people. In the Leeds City Region, 15,700 people are employed in the sector.

The success of Leeds as a centre for financial and business services has been underpinned by the development of its corporate legal sector, which offers an extensive range of specialist services.

Specialist legal expertise to be found in Leeds includes corporate finance, corporate restructuring and insolvency, global project financing, trade and investment, commercial litigation, competition, construction, Private Finance Initiatives and Public Private Partnerships, tax, derivatives, IT, employment, pensions, intellectual property, sport and entertainment.

The establishment of an Administrative Court in Leeds in April 2009 reinforced Leeds’ position as one of the UK’s key legal centres. The court previously sat only in London.

According to the Law Society of England and Wales there are 7,510 solicitors in 735 firms in the Yorkshire and Humber region. There are 30 barristers’ chambers in the region, of which 16 are in Leeds, with a total of 860 practicing barristers.

Nine universities in Yorkshire and the Humber offer degree courses in law.

The School of Law at the University of Leeds has over 800 undergraduate students and receives over 3,000 applications for less than 300 places available each year. The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise awarded the school an ‘outstanding’ rating.

Leeds Law School at Leeds Metropolitan University has over 1,000 students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Over 600 students are enrolled at the BPP University College Law School in Leeds.

The world’s first virtual courtroom was developed in a collaboration between the University of Leeds and the city of Hangzhou in China. Legal Grid Online helps to resolve legal disputes and provides mediation for businesses operating in one of the world’s fastest growing markets

Leeds Legal has been set up by leading members of the legal profession and organisations in Leeds to promote the high levels of service, expertise, no-nonsense advice and value for money service provided by the city’s law firms.