OVER the past 18 months the recession has caused carnage in UK's banking sector. Analysts agree that even once the dust is settled, the High Street will be largely unrecognisable. The sector will be dominated by fewer, but larger conglomerates. Diversity will have made way for unshakeable titans.
With eyewatering speed we have seen the nationalisation of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, the merger of HBOS and Lloyds into the Lloyds Banking Group and the Government taking a huge stake in RBS.
Over a similar time frame, Merseyside's legal sector has also seen several high profile changes, with a glut of activity in recent months.
Much of this activity may not be recession-linked – though much of it is – it is clear our legal High Street is also undergoing a metamorphosis.
On May 20, Hill Dickinson's senior management cut the ribbon in their new offices in Singapore. The firm – famed for its nautical expertise – now has two overseas outposts, the other in the Grecian port of Piraeus.
And as of July, Hill Dickinson will complete its merger with City of London firm Middleton Potts.
While also working in the shipping sector, Middleton specialises in commodities and will break new ground for the St Paul's Square-based firm.
Meanwhile, partners at Goodmans took the mutual decision to demerge into three niche firms – Goodmans, Heaney Watson and Ray Goodman's own firm Goodman Legal.
They say the move was not prompted by economic concerns but because strategically client care is best served by specialised firms, rather than broad-based Leviathans.
And one of outgoing managing partner Michael Brabner's last acts at the helm of Brabners Chaffe Street was to broker a merger with Bremners, the eight-partner, Tithebarn Street-based firm specialising in commercial and property law.
Jackson & Canter will also merge with AS Law in June, creating one of the largest private client practises in Merseyside.
But less "good news" stories have also hit the headlines recently. DLA Piper confirmed in February it would lose 130 staff nationwide, 13 of which would be from its Liverpool office. Those redundancies were on top of 31 announced in December.
And Halliwells will shed 30 jobs nationwide in a shake up that will see four posts lost in Liverpool. The firm also saw 48 redundancies across its four UK offices last year.
In March it also emerged that JST Lawyers were considering putting some of its staff on a four day week to stave off the recession.
With these changes in mind, LDP Business asked four of the city's leading lawyers what they made of the sector's reaction to the recession and what the future could hold.
