Gary McIndoe founded the Manchester-headquartered business and private client immigration firm Latitude Law almost two decades ago. He shares a day in his working life with the Brief.

I founded Latitude Law in 2007 and brought with me a number of colleagues from Robert Lizar Solicitors, a big Legal Aid practice in Moss Side, Manchester, which had just closed its immigration department.

Latitude focuses on business and private client immigration. We do occasionally handle asylum work, but this tends to be from wealthy individuals who have fallen foul of their governments rather than the more typical “small boats” type cases you regularly see on the news.

We now employ 20 people and have our head office in Manchester city centre. We also have appointment-only satellite offices in London and Brussels.

My wife Rebecca and I spend about a week a month in Brussels, where we have a city centre apartment. We established the office there to simplify dealing with our European clients post-Brexit, but it also provides a break from our adult children, who still live at home, and our two-year-old grandchild, Roman who, while adorable, is (as Rebecca puts it) “a proper time-thief”.

I love new music, and 6 Music soundtracks my days. Living in Manchester, and having a base in Brussels, means I get to a lot of gigs in both cities.

My wife and I spend about a week a month in Brussels, where we have a city centre apartment. We established the office there to simplify dealing with our European clients post-Brexit.

I always look up local venues when I’m away on business, to see if there’s anyone decent playing. Earlier this year, while at a conference in Denver, I spent a beguiling night watching Perfume Genius at the Gothic Theater in nearby Englewood.

Up and out

Dragging myself out of bed seems a lot harder these days. I’m especially bad when working from home, and Rebecca doesn’t help – she’s worse than me.

Once I’m up and about, I take Bella, our Jack Russell cross, for a walk on the field behind our house. She’s 13 now so, like me, she’s less inclined than she used to be to chase balls first thing in the morning, and prefers just to sniff her way around.

We live in Sale, about seven miles south of Manchester City Centre, so if I’m heading into the office then I’ll either take the tram, and enjoy the chance to escape into a book if it’s not too crowded, or I’ll get on my bike and cycle in.

Team dynamics

We took on our lovely office space in St James’ Building on Oxford Road in 2019 which, timing-wise, was quite annoying. It does make me a little sad that it is rather under-used post-pandemic.

I talk to clients and colleagues all the time via Teams, and I’m as comfortable in an online meeting as I am in-person, but I do miss the buzz of having everybody in the office together. Now we only tend to get that if the firm is paying for lunch!

That said, remote working is a great enabler. One of our solicitors is currently working part-time for us while travelling in the Far East and Australia.

We took on our lovely office space in St James’ Building on Oxford Road in 2019 which, timing-wise, was quite annoying. It does make me a little sad that it is rather under-used post-pandemic.

He joined us as a graduate, and trained and qualified with us, and is doing really well. Earlier today I had a catch-up with him via Teams.

I love developing and managing the team. We tend to recruit graduates, who we then train up, through to qualification if that’s what they want to achieve. It’s a mark of our quality that many later go on to big legal.

Clients

My legal work these days tends to be either complex – maybe a litigation piece in the High Court – or supervisory, advising and supporting our excellent team of solicitors and paralegals.

In general, clients are referred in via professional contacts, including other law firms that don’t have their own immigration practice.

I often carry out initial consultations with new clients. I still really enjoy those calls, having a blank piece of paper, learning what somebody wants to achieve and seeing if I can help them do that.

We focus on UK in-bound work. It’s about a 50/50 split between corporate and private clients, with the majority coming from the US, China and the Middle East.

This week, for example, I have spoken to a Qatar-based Indian entrepreneur looking at the UK for his steel industry project and a US attorney interested in forming an LLP in London.

As a firm we focus on UK in-bound work. It’s about a 50/50 split between corporate and private clients, with the majority coming from the US, China and the Middle East.

Although we work for a few really big multinationals the majority of the businesses we work with are smaller. On the personal front it tends to be high net worth individuals, and, for example, families of UK-based businesspeople who have their origins overseas.

Political backdrop

Obviously immigration is getting more challenging, particularly for businesses that want to sponsor staff to come to the UK, because the government has recently changed the rules and cut off a whole raft of occupations from the sponsorship route.

When I speak to colleagues who haven’t been practising immigration law for as long as I have, they worry that with the current direction of travel the whole practice area will dry up. But, in my experience, people are ingenious and will always want to migrate – and despite the country’s best efforts, the UK remains an attractive destination for a lot of people.

Networking ecosystem

When I am in the office I will often meet friends or contacts for lunch or a coffee. Developing new business is a major part of my work and, over the 18 years that Latitude Law has been around, I have developed an amazing network of business colleagues, many of whom are now friends.

In my experience, people are ingenious and will always want to migrate – and despite the country’s best efforts, the UK remains an attractive destination for a lot of people.

There is a lovely ecosystem in Manchester at the SME level. These relationships are key to our business and need to be nurtured, so I have to confess that I do attend a lot of evening networking events around the city.

If I’m not out and about, though, I’ll head home. Cooking in the evening is usually shared between me and my younger daughter, Imogen – although she’s currently on protein shakes so isn’t much use right now.

When I eventually get to bed it’s usually late, and then I’ll read some more – hence the aforementioned struggle to get up in the morning!

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Latitude Law

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