Juliet Lawson, Senior Associate, reflects on the Yorkshire legal market in 2025 and shares her predictions for the year ahead.
From Juliet Lawson
As with a lot of other regions, we have seen some caution in both the candidate and job market across Yorkshire this year, and a sense that the “hire, hire, hire” energy of the post-Covid market is now well behind us. Global events, both new and ongoing, and general concerns around the economy, have played their part here.
We have still seen strong demand in quite a number of markets, but only after thorough work pipeline analysis, with far less speculative hiring – even in hard-to-source niches where there’s never a candidate in the market when you do need one.
Leeds
In Leeds, real estate was quiet across the board for the first half of the year, but has picked up again in recent months, with commercial and residential development the most in-demand areas.
Demand for corporate lawyers has been predominantly at the more senior end, with firms feeling generally well-stocked at the junior level.
There has been very strong demand for employment lawyers throughout the year in Leeds, in no small part due to upcoming changes in the law.
There has been very strong demand for employment lawyers throughout the year in Leeds, in no small part due to upcoming changes in the law, with the new Employment Rights Bill as well as other sector-specific changes coming into force, and we expect demand to continue into 2026.
Property litigation, housing management, commercial disputes, commercial and projects have all been reasonably busy this year. Restructuring and insolvency has been quite quiet.
NQ retention levels were good, but not as good as some years, and the external NQ job market was pretty modest, with some NQs needing to be more flexible in the kind of roles they took.
Newer entrants to the market, like Lewis Silkin, have seen some good progress in building their presence in the city.
Sheffield
In Sheffield, overall 2025 has been a year of rebuilding and repositioning, setting the stage for further growth next year after a slower 2024 across the board.
We have seen office moves and mergers, such as Bell & Buxton/Sills & Betteridge, which has injected some life into the regional market – on which Sheffield relies more heavily than Leeds. There’s also been some good growth across the cluster of larger nationals and internationals.
Salaries are keeping pace with the increasing cost of living, but we are definitely seeing caution when it comes to stepping outside specific salary bands.
Private Client, employment and litigation have been strong across the region, with transactional areas taking longer to pick up, as with Leeds.
Salaries are keeping pace with the increasing cost of living, but we are definitely seeing caution when it comes to stepping outside specific salary bands, with most firms generally unwilling to “throw money at the project” to get a chosen candidate over the line.
Overall, though, we have a fairly optimistic market going into 2026, with no shortage of roles across most practice areas.
