Leeds Legal - an alliance of the city’s law firms - attended a reception at the Barcelona Bar Association with a selection of the city’s dignitaries including the Lord Major of Leeds, and signed a co-operation agreement with the Bar Association to demonstrate the commitment between Leeds and Barcelona to further develop a close working relationship.
In addition, Leeds Legal continues to spearhead the forging of business links with the Spanish city, following three productive visits to Barcelona in the last two years. Now the organisation has confirmed a return delegation. A group of 20 Barcelona-based lawyers will visit Leeds in June to allow the city’s law firms the opportunity to build on the Anglo-Spanish collaborative working relationship.
Leeds Legal will also take part in a combined delegation in the autumn with colleagues from the creative arts sector to showcase the city’s expertises. The collaboration of legal and creative arts supports two prominent sectors in Barcelona, and further develops the two cities business and cultural links.
Alan M. Baker, chairman of Leeds Legal, said: “We are delighted to have returned to Leeds with a formal agreement between the two commercial centres to work together more closely in the future. This is a key milestone for Leeds Legal and the city’s law firms. We’ve made excellent progress in communicating the benefits of Leeds as the largest legal centre outside of London to Barcelona firms on our previous visits and we look forward to welcoming our colleagues from Barcelona to Leeds in the summer.”
The three-day visit, as part of the Leeds in Barcelona festival of commerce and culture , organised by Marketing Leeds, allowed Leeds Legal to link with its Barcelona counterpart. This facilitated the exchange of best practice and helped to further develop collaborative links with key Spanish legal professionals and businesses.
As part of the visit, Leeds Legal hosted a seminar on ‘Successful Marketing of Law Firms’ to an audience of lawyers and business intermediaries from the Catalonian region.
Mr Baker continues: “The seminar was a real success with over 50 legal and business professionals attending to hear leading Leeds lawyers present an engaging and informative presentation which highlighted the importance of marketing a law firm effectively. Our city’s lawyers provide world-class legal advice and it was an honour to have the opportunity to share our expertise with our colleagues in Barcelona.”
Leeds in Barcelona is the second international festival organised by Marketing Leeds and UKTI and follows the successful Leeds in Milan event which took place in 2008.The three day event provided an effective platform for prominent business sectors in Leeds to present their capabilities, successes and proposition to Spanish business audiences.
Leeds Legal is a unique organisation dedicated to raising the profile of the world-class expertise of the city’s legal services sector. It continues to be one of the most successful city agencies to utilise European and international trade missions.
