The Legal Cheek View
Meet Ward Hadaway at Legal Cheek’s final Virtual Law Fair of the autumn on Tuesday 17 November 2026.
Ward Hadaway has come a long way since setting up shop in Newcastle in 1988 with the aim of taking on the city’s established commercial firms. Leeds followed in 2008, Manchester in 2012 and, in 2025, Birmingham became the firm’s first office outside the North of England. It was a significant step for a firm that had spent the previous few decades steadily building out its northern presence.
The Birmingham office has already grown from seven people at launch to 16, including eight partners, with lawyers working across housing, employment, education and construction. So far, at least, the move looks to be about more than simply putting another pin on the map.
The numbers tell a similar story. Turnover reached £53.6 million in the latest financial year, up nearly 12% and marking a fifth consecutive year of growth. Housing, private client and commercial disputes were among the strongest performers, while Manchester posted a punchy 42% rise in revenue. Managing partner Steven Petrie is targeting a further 50% increase in turnover by 2029, suggesting there is still plenty of appetite for expansion.
That expansion also took Ward Hadaway further across the North East in 2025, when it merged with Teesside firm The Endeavour Partnership just a month after opening in Birmingham. The move took Ward Hadaway to five offices and gave it a base in the Tees Valley, an area attracting major investment through projects such as Teesworks, the multi-billion-pound, 4,500-acre industrial regeneration scheme on the former Redcar steelworks site.
So what does all that growth actually mean for the work? The corporate team is a good place to start. It advised on well over 100 deals last year, involving businesses at different stages of their development. Recent matters include helping logistics company Uniexpress acquire a Manchester warehousing business and advising the shareholders of Green Group, a recruiter focused on the green economy, on an investment from Key Capital Partners. One trainee says the work is “diverse in terms of scale and variety”, adding that rookies “won’t only get to do smaller deals or a particular category of matters”.
Property is another big part of the practice, particularly housing. Ward Hadaway’s lawyers can get involved long before anyone lays the first brick, advising housebuilders, housing associations and local authorities on buying land, securing planning permission, arranging finance and negotiating construction contracts. Nor does the work stop once the houses are built, with teams also advising on sales, leases and the various issues housing providers encounter when managing their properties.
The healthcare team, meanwhile, deals with a rather different set of pressures. Ward Hadaway advises more than 70 NHS organisations, with lawyers handling matters ranging from employment and property to procurement, inquests and clinical negligence claims. Councils, schools and other public bodies also feature in the client base, so trainees interested in public sector work should find plenty to get stuck into.
Private client and family work takes things in a more personal direction. Lawyers advise individuals on wills, trusts, succession, divorce and disputes over estates. Put that alongside corporate deals, housing developments and NHS work and there is a pretty broad spread for trainees trying to work out where their interests lie.
Ward Hadaway advertises around 15 to 20 trainee vacancies on its training contract programme. Applicants can apply directly or get to know the firm first through its three-day spring vacation scheme. Participants spend time working on live client matters, meeting trainees and lawyers and getting a feel for different departments, alongside activities with the emerging talent team. Training contract recruits receive sponsorship for SQE study, while successful applicants without a law degree can also receive PGDL sponsorship.
Once through the door, trainees start with a two-week induction before moving through four six-month seats. Corporate and commercial, disputes, employment, housing and real estate are among the main options, with occasional openings in private client. Trainees can put forward their preferences, although, as with most seat rotations, availability has the final say. Some may also have the opportunity to undertake a secondment with a client’s in-house legal team, although sources tell us these opportunities can be hard to come by.
Each seat comes with a supervisor, while a newly qualified solicitor acts as a buddy throughout the training contract. One rookie says seat teams often have just four to seven people and a single trainee, with a partner sometimes acting as their direct supervisor. Another describes the training as “very hands on and involved”, giving them room to develop their own style rather than be micromanaged. The firm describes its culture as supportive and inclusive, with trainees encouraged to speak up, ask questions and get involved rather than quietly observe from the sidelines.
Trainees seem to back that up, describing an informal atmosphere where senior lawyers are approachable and juniors can take on responsibility early, while still having supervisors around when they need a steer. “There is a genuine open-door culture (perhaps helped by the hotdesking)”, says one rookie. Another reports “extensive client contact, including leading meetings without supervision”. Much of the learning happens on the job, although some teams also run weekly training sessions. Ward Hadaway operates a two-day office policy, but trainees say coming in more often can be useful for picking up work from different colleagues.
There is a social side as well. Within the trainee cohort, one rookie describes “no peer competition”, while another says colleagues in their office have become “friends rather than colleagues”. Bowling, netball and summer barbecues all crop up in the calendar, giving rookies a chance to get to know colleagues away from their desks. The social committee also puts on office quizzes and murder mysteries. Trainees are welcome at business development events too, with external networking “actively encouraged and funded”, as one insider puts it.
Those keen to do something beyond client work should find a fair few options too. Trainees and junior lawyers mentor young people through IntoUniversity, while everyone at the firm gets one paid day each year to volunteer for a charity of their choice. One trainee volunteering day saw 24 of them tending goats at a Leeds community project, which is probably a welcome change from drafting contracts. Newcastle trainees have also organised a bingo night to raise money for The People’s Kitchen, a charity supporting homeless and vulnerable people. Each office backs its own chosen charities too, so there is plenty of scope to get involved.
On the environmental front, one trainee points to efforts to cut paper use, separate recycling and food waste facilities, EV charging points and surveys of how staff travel to work. Another sums up the firm’s approach as “pretty standard”.
As for the day-to-day set-up, Ward Hadaway offers hybrid working and 25 days of annual leave, with the option to buy up to five more. The firm contributes towards a desk and chair for home working, and one trainee also mentions a monthly contribution towards working from home. Its offices also have dedicated spaces for wellbeing, prayer or simply finding a bit of peace and quiet. The perks are “just the standard” in one rookie’s view, although they consider the “brilliant” working culture worth the trade-off.
On hours, “There is no culture of presenteeism within the firm,” says one trainee. Another says they can usually leave around 5.30pm and have rarely worked weekends. Busy periods can still require some work outside office hours.
The offices receive mixed reviews. One Leeds trainee praises the top-floor views and describes the space as “modern and clean”, while another source, who doesn’t disclose their location, describes their office as “standard” and “nothing too fancy”. There’s no canteen as such, although trainees report having access to kitchen facilities and a good selection of nearby lunch spots.
Legal tech also gets a measured review. “Fairly standard for a law firm of the size,” is one trainee’s verdict. Others say the use of AI and other tools is encouraged, although there is room to automate more routine tasks.
For applicants, one of the obvious attractions is the range of work on offer within a single training contract. Corporate transactions, housing developments, NHS matters and private client work all call for quite different skills, while the four-seat structure gives trainees a decent chance to figure out what suits them. With Birmingham and Teesside now part of the picture too, there is a broader office network in which to start doing just that.