The region's top law firm, Dickinson Dees, opened an office in the Tees Valley five years ago this week. Business Editor Julia Breen looks at the progress it has made.

FIVE years ago, when solicitors Robin Bloom and Nigel Williams were asked to open Dickinson Dees' Teesside office, they were surprised to discover that not many people in the Tees Valley had heard of the Newcastle firm.

Despite the fact that Dickinson Dees' Newcastle office was only 40 miles up the A1, and that it had been practising since the 18th Century, it was relatively unknown in the Tees Valley.

Mr Williams, a former City lawyer, originally from Middlesbrough, who now runs the Tees Valley office, said: "Our biggest challenge when we opened was raising the profile of Dickinson Dees in the business community.

"Teesside is such a different kettle of fish to Newcastle - there are about five different business communities here, so we opened an office right in the middle, in the Teesdale part of Thornaby.

"We also did things like sponsoring the roundabout outside Durham Tees Valley Airport - that really helped.

"And in that nine-month period between January 2000 and the opening of the office in September, we went to every networking event we were invited to, or that we had heard of. We were networking like mad."

IN 1999, Dickinson Dees seemed to spot that the Tees Valley was going to become a major growth area.

National law firm Eversheds, which has an office in Newcastle, had decided to close its Tees Valley office at about the same time as Dickinson Dees decided to open one.

Mr Bloom, who specialises in employment law, had worked for a large firm in Teesside until he was recruited with the express purpose of helping to open the Tees Valley office. He is now senior partner for the whole law firm.

When the pair opened in a smaller office in Teesdale in 2000, they started with almost nothing. They recruited two legal PAs and then two more solicitors and numbers grew steadily.

In 2002, they moved to a larger office in Teesdale, taking a whole floor with the confidence that the workforce would grow into the space.

There are now 40 people working at the Tees Valley office out of a total of 700 people working across the Dickinson Dees group.

Mr Williams said: "I think we have reached critical mass now with 40 people. There would be no point growing the office to have another 700 people here. The way the two offices work is that we share resources and if we need a specialist on a certain matter that we don't have in Teesside, we will go to someone in our Newcastle office.

"But we wanted to establish a full service commercial law firm in Teesside, and that is what we have done. We cover the four main areas - property, litigation, commercial and private client work. We wanted to have four partner-led departments, just as we have in Newcastle, and we now have that."

One of the most crucial pieces of work that Mr Williams won was when Durham Tees Valley Airport - then Teesside International - was taken on by airport and port operator Peel Holdings, from the local authorities who had held significant stakes in the airport. Dickinson Dees acted for the local councils on the high-profile job.

The firm also won work with Sembcorp Utilities UK, which owns and operates the Wilton International site, helping it to establish links with some of the major chemical companies.

Mr Bloom said: "The chemical industry has been a fairly major source of work for us. That was one of our ambitions, to capture some of the blue-chip work, the major corporates.

"There are a lot of them with operations in Teesside, but they tend to spend their legal and accountancy budgets in London, or wherever their HQ is. We have tried to convince them to use us instead, and have been quite successful in that. It was something no other law firms had really tried to do before."

Dickinson Dees now acts for Huntsman, the largest chemical operator in Teesside, and some of the other chemical groups.

Mr Williams, who deals in corporate transactions, has also cemented Dickinson Dees' reputation in that area after he acted for the Bell family when they sold their chain of convenience stores to Sainsbury's. Sainsbury's now uses Mr Williams for some of its corporate transactions, including recently the purchase of another chain of convenience shops in the Midlands.

When Mr Bloom and Mr Williams started in the Tees Valley, they had a five-year plan to win major private and public sector work, establish the four main departments and build the workforce to about 40.

Mr Williams said: "We fulfilled our five-year plan within three years, and then had to have a rethink. We want to carry on winning new business in the Tees Valley, but serving our existing clients is just as important."

Mr Bloom added: "We are also looking for opportunities nationally. We act for Croydon Borough Council, for example, and we want to build up the national work more."

The partners at Dickinson Dees are looking at their business plan for the next few years, which will continue the focus on building a nationally-recognised practice. The firm's turnover was £42m last year and is set to grow again this year.

But both Mr Williams and Mr Bloom stressed that they were keen to stop legal work that could be done in the Tees Valley from going to Leeds or London.

Mr Williams said: "I am trained to do corporate work and, until we opened this office, the only options were London, or if you wanted to work in the region, Leeds or Newcastle. I think the Tees Valley, and the region as a whole, is really growing in stature."

The other law firms in the Tees Valley have been growing in the past few years because of the increase in corporate activity - for example the Endeavour Partnership, and Jacksons, and Blackett, Hart & Pratt is a very strong practice now.

"Crutes has also spread its wings into the Tees Valley.

"It's a really good thing for us as well, that there are strong law firms in the Tees Valley, because, particularly for the work I do, you need someone acting for each side."

Other client wins have been in the education sector, with Teesside University, Middlesbrough College, and some of the region's private schools using Dickinson Dees' services. The firm also acted for the Teesside-based Biofuels Corporation, which is building the world's biggest biofuels plant on Teesside, and also New Century Inns, the MMP group, Tees Valley Regeneration, Northgate plc, and a host of small and medium businesses.

The Tees Valley office is now looking to win more work from prosperous small businesses in North Yorkshire.