WITH our merger with AS Law we’re basically doubling the size of our immigration team and increasing our capability on private client immigration as well as the public law and prison law.

It made economic sense because we could take AS Law into our existing premises. Their lease was coming to an end – so it made financial sense.

It strengthened our unique selling point as human rights and public law experts – it emphasises our place in the market.

The bottom line also looks better because we’re taking out some of the overheads of the AS Law operation.

In a sense our sector is – unfortunately – better in a recession. The economic downturn leads to more work for our kind of practice.

More generally, Liverpool’s legal scene isn’t as connected to the property market as other areas.

It’s a very big litigation centre, that’s what the Liverpool scene is really known for, and that’s probably holding up reasonably well.

But there are some bleak conveyancing practices which have had to make serious adjustments to the scale of their business. And commercial practices have certainly seen the downturn.

I’ve talked to people and nobody seems desperate. They’re taking necessary action and putting themselves in a good position for when things turn around.

I think we will see Liverpool in a strong position. I think we’ve always been very resourceful here and the legal sector will continue to do reasonably well.

My view is in the long term you’ve either got to be across the board or quite niche.

As part of the economic drive, you’re likely to get larger suppliers in the private client sector.

But you’re also going to get people who are niche in terms of service delivery.

It’s going to be interesting to see. What’s happening in Liverpool is a microcosm of what’s happening all over the place.