Next month, lawyers from around the world will visit Yorkshire to help spread the word that the region is a powerful economic hub.

Shulmans, the Leeds law firm, will host a delegation of global lawyers on behalf of Interlegal, the international association of law firms, in order to promote Yorkshire as an attractive business alternative to London.

Over 30 law firms from countries including Germany, India, Russia and the US, plus growing legal jurisdictions such as Mexico, Thailand and Cote’ D’Ivoire, will join business figures to share ideas about how to build links and optimise the benefits of working with UK regional hubs. The shape of international legal policy post Brexit will also be discussed.

Visiting from November 1 to 5, the delegation is also due to meet the chief executive of Leeds City Council, Tom Riordan along with Andrew Cooper, the chief executive of Leeds Business Improvement District and Roger Marsh, the chairman of Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership.

Senior partner at Schulman’s, Jeremy Shulman whose firm joined Interlegal 22 years ago, said: “Interlegal is designed as a trading body. If we have clients’ issues abroad, we send our cases to our colleagues in Interlegal. They send work to us.”

The Interlegal group covers 46 countries and meets twice a year. Mr Shulman said he wanted the group to have a positive impression of the Leeds City Region.
He added: “A lot of them will come with preconceived ideas that nothing exists outside London.

“We want to leave them with a very strong message that Leeds commercially is a very strong city and Yorkshire is a strong county.

“Brexit is not going to be a comfortable ride for everybody and therefore they are going to have to look to pastures new and this sort of arrangement will, I’m sure, assist them.”