HALL BROWN REMAINS ‘HEAD AND SHOULDERS’ ABOVE MANCHESTER RIVALS 

Published on 22 April, 2025 | James Brown/Sam Hall

Hall Brown has described being singled out once more as Manchester’s leading family law firm as a “justifiable cause for celebration”.

The latest edition of the independent Doyle’s Guide ranking of legal specialists has put Hall Brown quite literally in a class of its own for the second year in a row, naming it as the only First Tier family operator in the city.

The firm has also seen seven of its lawyers recognised across the full Doyle’s listing, more than any other practitioner.

Hall Brown’s co-founders – Senior Partner Sam Hall and Managing Partner James Brown – are two of only three lawyers identified as Pre-eminent in their field, while Andrew Newbury and his fellow Partner Beth Wilkins are included as Leading practitioners.

Another Hall Brown Partner, Claire Reid, is among those Recommended in the same category.

Mr Hall, Mr Brown and Mr Newbury together make up almost half of all the lawyers rated as the most capable advisors to High Net Worth clients.

The heads of Hall Brown’s Mediation and Children divisions – Sarah Manning and Melanie Kalina – feature among the five names in their respective lists, while Senior Associate Madelaine Hailey is again named among the city’s Rising Stars of family law.

Publication of the Doyle’s classifications comes only months after Hall Brown completed another clean sweep of the country’s premier legal rankings.

It was the only specialist family practice based in the North West to earn a place in the top tier of the Legal 500, Chambers and Partners, eprivateclient and Times Best 250 Law firms classifications.

Mr Hall said that the latest recognition was further evidence of Hall Brown’s status as one of the country’s family law elite.

“When we launched, we intended to be one of the best family law firms in the country.

“We understood that meant not only working incredibly hard on behalf of our clients but being able to gather together some of the most talented young and experienced talent around, both family lawyers and support staff.

“Successive rankings have shown that our peers and our clients believe we have done so. To be regarded as head and shoulders above our competitors is extremely satisfying.

“We have been determined from the start not to rest on our laurels but to keep progressing – something evidenced by the calibre of the individuals whom we count ourselves as fortunate to work with and the growth in our caseload.”

The Doyle’s Guide is one of a handful of respected legal rankings worldwide and has a specific focus on lawyers and law firms in the UK, Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions.

It bases its conclusions on carefully vetted opinions within the legal industry and client feedback.

It follows, Legal 500 hailing the firm as being “best in its class” with lawyers who “excel at every level” in October last year.

As well as being one of 10 firms in the top tier for the North West, Hall Brown had four partners – Mr Brown and his co-founder, Senior Partner, Sam Hall, together with Andrew Newbury and Beth Wilkins – in Legal 500’s list of leading partners across the region, more than any other firm.

Four of Hall Brown’s five offices also made the Chambers and Partners’ listing, with Manchester and Sheffield both being included in Band One.

Meanwhile, the following month, the firm retained its place on a list of the UK’s 250 best law firms working across 28 legal business, public and private client disciplines published by the Times newspaper.

In doing so, it became one of only a handful of firms to have featured in the list every year since it was first compiled in 2018.

The collective ranking success comes with Hall Brown on course to post new record turnover on the back of an increase in workload across all five of its offices – Manchester, London, Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield.