Hall Brown Family Law has described how its commitment to hiring and retaining top quality staff has seen it remain the only North West-based family law specialist to feature in all of the year’s legal rankings.
The clean sweep was completed by its keeping its place in an authoritative list of the best 250 law firms in England and Wales compiled by The Times.
Hall Brown’s inclusion means that it is one of the very few family law boutique firms to feature every year since the table was first published in 2018.
It is also the only family law firm based in the North West and one of only two specialist practices with headquarters outside London and the South East to make the index.
The appearance of the Times’ classification has coincided with Hall Brown again being the sole specialist from the North West named in the first tier of epivateclient’s survey of UK family law practitioners.
These latest placings follow a hat-trick of top placings in Chambers and Partners, Legal 500 and Doyle’s Guide.
Hall Brown has the additional distinction of being the only Manchester-headquartered law firm to be considered one of the Sunday Times’ Best Places to Work.
Managing Partner James Brown said that latter recognition had been “instrumental” in a year which has seen strong growth both in fee income and the number of employees.
“We really do feel privileged to be acknowledged for doing what we love to do so well.
“That is down to the standards which we set when we launched almost a decade ago and a determination on the part of everyone within the firm to provide exceptional support for clients every single day.
“To have clients, our legal peers and independent researchers rate us so highly is a source of great pride.
“Just as the legal industry rankings help individuals decide who to turn to for advice on some incredibly sensitive and occasionally difficult issues, the fact that we have once more been ranked one of the country’s best places to work has helped make us a place where so many talented lawyers and support staff have decided to further their careers.
“As 2025 draws to a close, the rankings serve not only as testament to how much we have achieved collectively in the last 12 months but as a reminder of the levels we will all strive to live up to next year and beyond”.
Mr Brown’s comments follow the eighth and latest edition of The Times’ rankings of the UK’s leading 250 firms in 28 different legal disciplines.
The appearance of this year’s listing came just a week after Hall Brown was the North West’s only standard bearer among seven family law specialists to make eprivateclients’ top tier.
Hall Brown was singled out for providing “a Rolls-Royce service” by Legal 500, while Chambers and Partners concluded that the firm was “exceptionally good at what they do”.
Over the course of the year’s rankings, all five of Hall Brown’s offices in Manchester, London, Sheffield, Leeds and Birmingham have reaped considerable individual praise.
Chambers and Partners singled out Mr Brown and his co-founder, Sam Hall, as a “visionary” and “force of nature” respectively, while Legal 500 included Andrew Newbury, Zoe Round and Martin Loxley in its Hall of Fame.
Alison Fernandes, who head’s up Hall Brown’s Sheffield office was named in the same classification as a Leading Partner, along with Mr Brown, Mr Hall and Claire Reid.
Melanie Hadwin and Madelaine Hailey were identified as Leading Associates, and Hall Brown’s Head of Non-Court Dispute Resolution (NCDR), Sarah Manning, was singled out as a Next Generation Partner.
Her colleague in the firm’s Leeds office, Partner Laura Guillon, Izzy Walsh and Priya Palanivel – who together head up its London premises – were also lauded.
Hall Brown was among only 11 legal firms nationwide and the only one from Manchester to feature in the Sunday Times ‘Best Places to Work’ list.
Judges described how the firm’s continued growth since launching in 2016 was due to “the culture and wellbeing of the team”.
Hall Brown now employs 79 staff across its offices in, 58 of whom are fee earners.
