The Lord Mayor of the City of London, David Brewer, represents the entire UK-based financial services industry. He made the comments whilst visiting the Yorkshire region this week, to find out more about Leeds’ thriving legal and financial centres and international plans to promote its services to a global economy.
The Lord Mayor received a briefing on Leeds Legal’s programme of international trade missions at an event hosted at Pinsent Masons Leeds office, one of the founding members of the organisation, on 27th July. At the briefing, the Lord Mayor heard of Leeds Legal’s first trade mission to Brussels which took place in June, and its forthcoming events at Düsseldorf and China.
Responding to the briefing, the Lord Mayor said: “Internationally-experienced lawyers play an absolutely critical role in a country’s economic growth and this campaign, along with the Leeds Financial Services Initiative, will do much to promote the UK’s strong financial and legal services offering in global markets.
“Throughout my career I have traveled to many countries and seen first hand the positive impact that an internationalised, entrepreneurial, well-organised legal profession has on a nation or city’s economy. The contribution the legal profession has to make to the global growth of the UK cannot be over-stated. I was particularly interested to hear about the links forged by Leeds Legal between the legal professions in Leeds and its sister city in China, Hangzhou. It is this kind of business partnership that will mean the UK wins market share in the world’s fastest growing economy.
Nigel McClea, a founding member of Leeds Legal and head of Pinsent Masons’ Leeds office said: "We were delighted to meet with the Lord Mayor and his positive comments about our campaign were very encouraging. Leeds Legalis the first city-based legal campaign of its kind, but we are proud to part of a broader nation-wide campaign to promote the UK as a strong economic force. We look forward to working with the Lord Mayor and the City of London to this end.”
Along with meeting Leeds Legal, the Lord Mayor of London also visited and met with Leeds Financial Services Initiative, the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Leeds University Business School, Marketing Leeds and the wider business community including accountancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers.
