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Professional and legal services

Northern Ireland is a leading global location for professional and legal services investment.

The professional services cluster in Northern Ireland includes companies that have reached significant scale, having developed large multi-disciplinary teams.

The “Big 4” accountancy houses have all located their UK delivery centres in Belfast, providing client-facing services. Both Deloitte and PwC’s Belfast centres are their largest centres in the UK outside of London.

The Northern Ireland cluster also includes global companies such as BDO, Grant Thornton and PA Consulting.

Northern Ireland’s legal sector is vibrant, internationally focused and has grown significantly over the last ten years.

Within the last decade, we’ve welcomed globally recognised law firms including A&O Shearman, Baker McKenzie, Herbert Smith Freehills and Factor.

Sharing a regulatory framework and company law regime with England and Wales, Northern Ireland is a proven location of choice for international legal services.

  • Almost 20,000 people employed in the professional and legal services sector (NI BRES 2021)

  • Over 7,000 graduates in disciplines of relevance to legal, professional & knowledge services including business, law, technology, HR and communications (HESA 2020/21)

  • Belfast has been identified as one of the top 10 global emerging lawtech scenes alongside London, San Francisco, Singapore & Tel Aviv (Law Society England & Wales, 2019)

  • PwC and Google’s first European Innovation lab was established in Belfast in 2015 (PwC)

Areas of expertise

Area of sector expertise

  • Trade legal services
  • Commercial dispute resolution
  • Funds law
  • Specialist consultancy and outsourcing
  • Regulatory and compliance services
  • Legal technology solutions
  • Our legal talent pool includes an annual surplus of some 600 law graduates as well as an experienced cadre of professionals, many of whom are register to practice law in other jurisdictions including England & Wales and the Republic of Ireland.
  • Northern Ireland boasts almost 450 local law firms, 3,000 solicitors and 600 barristers and KCs.
  • Undergraduate law degrees at Queen's and Ulster universities have both been ranked in the top 20 in the UK by prestigious university guides.
  • Teams in A&O Shearman, Baker McKenzie, Factor and Herbert Smith Freehills offer highly structured and innovative solutions to managing document-intensive and volume tasks.
  • Large GB firms including Eversheds Sutherland, Fieldfisher, Gateley, Pinsent Masons, Shoosmiths and TLT have all expanded into Northern Ireland.
  • BT and Citi have built and expanded their in-house legal capabilities in Northern Ireland.
  • FinTrU has recently launched a legal services Assured Skills Academy to expand its legal offering to Tier 1 investment banks.

Northern Ireland for foreign direct investment

Northern Ireland is an attractive place for investment in the professional and legal services sector thanks to a combination of factors including skills availability, excellent infrastructure, cost-effectiveness and a supportive business environment. To find out more visit our Invest in Northern Ireland section.

Who's here

Global leaders successfully operating in the region include:

A&O Shearman Logo

A&O Shearman was formed in 2024 via the merger of two historic firms, Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling. A&O Shearman Belfast opened in 2011. It is the second largest office in the A&O Shearman network, employing approximately 700 people. It includes a Support Service Centre which delivers business services – Document & Design, Finance, Human Resources, IT, Library & Information and Marketing & Business Development - to the firm’s global network. The global hub for IT support is based in Belfast, operating a 24/7 service model. A&O Shearman Belfast is also at the forefront of delivering legal services to clients in new and flexible ways, with proportionate lower-cost, tech enabled resourcing and end-to-end managed legal services.  It forms part of Advanced Delivery & Solutions, which also sees specialist consultancy and strategic advisory services offered from Belfast. 

Professional and legal services in Northern Ireland video playlist

Hear from our investors on why they chose Northern Ireland for their investment.

Get in touch

Connect with a member of our professional and legal services team via LinkedIn.

Please get in touch.  You can find a team in your region or fill in an enquiry form and a member of the team will contact you directly.

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