Leading law firm Ison Harrison has been shortlisted for two awards at the Yorkshire Legal Awards, one of the legal sector’s most prestigious industry events.
The firm is in the frame in the Law Firm of the Year (medium) and Corporate and Commercial Law Firm categories. Ison Harrison won the medium law firm of the year accolade last year and this is the third successive year that the firm has been shortlisted for the award.
The awards ceremony takes place on 5 October in Leeds.
This latest achievement follows Ison Harrison’s successful transition to becoming entirely employee owned at the beginning of 2022 when the three shareholder directors agreed to sell the business to an Employee Ownership Trust. The firm’s corporate and commercial division is also on track to post its best year following an increase in transactional values combined with a growing headcount.
2022 was a record year for the firm with turnover in the company & commercial division up 67% on the previous year. So far in 2023, the department’s turnover is 78% higher than the same period in 2022 and the team has grown to 29 people, requiring additional office space in the Leeds City Centre head office to accommodate the additional recruits.
Ison Harrison, which has a network of seventeen offices throughout the region, was founded in 1978. With an annual turnover of over £20 million, the firm has become a well-known regional practice offering the broadest range of legal services to thousands of people and businesses in the region. The firm opened its newest office in Wakefield in September 2022 with plans for future expansion in the region.
Jonathan Wearing, managing director at Ison Harrison, commented: “After our most successful year in our history last year, we are already on track to exceed those achievements in 2023. We are proud to be shortlisted once again as the medium law firm of the year and hope we can defend the title. To be shortlisted in the corporate and commercial category is testament to the achievements of the division which continues to go from strength to strength. It’s a major achievement and recognition for the hard work put in by all our team.
“Becoming a 100% employee-owned business has proved to be a defining moment in our journey as a firm, providing stability for all of our dedicated staff and the perfect platform for further growth.”
Richard Coulthard, head of corporate and commercial at Ison Harrison, added: “It’s an honour to be shortlisted which comes off the back of three years of continued growth of the division and some really exciting recent developments such as the promotion of Ben Palmer to partner and the appointment of specialist corporate mergers and acquisitions lawyer Victoria Boid, further boosting the firm’s company and commercial law team offering. With transaction values in the corporate team increasing significantly and the team developing a specialism advising on employee ownership transition, 2023 looks like being our best year to date and we look forward to the awards outcome later this year.”
Ison Harrison currently hold 13 Law Society accreditations including Conveyancing Quality, Clinical Negligence, Children Law, Family Law, Immigration & Asylum, and SRA Higher Courts Rights – civil and criminal.
