John McKee and Son Solicitors

Like the legal communities in several major industrial cities, Belfast has its fair share of firms of solicitors with long and proud histories.

But not all of them have been able to make the transition to today's fast moving, competitive and increasingly specialised legal services marketplace, where customer loyalty is not quite as solid as it used to be.
Belfast-based John McKee & Sons was established by John McKee back in 1887, when Belfast was a major centre of heavy industry, and the firm has retained its family ethos since those early days.
"We've been a family firm for over 100 years, and we've no plans to change that," says Managing Partner Avril McCammon, who nowadays leads a staff of 60 based in brand new offices at The Linenhall Building in the city's Linenhall Street.

"But, in a lot of other ways, things have changed beyond recognition. When I arrived here as a trainee in the early 1990's, this was still a fairly typical practice providing a service to clients right across the spectrum."
By the mid-90's, John McKee & Sons developed its first niche specialisation, one that remains to this day. The firm is ranked as the leading legal adviser to the main banks, working for banking clients in the three jurisdictions of Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and England. Its client list includes all four of the four main local banks - Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank, Northern Bank and First Trust.

In more recent years, the firm has moved in other directions. key appointments, like that of Julie Huddleston, an experienced lawyer having worked in Dublin and as a legal advisor for PWC Belfast, have taken McKee's into the corporate sector, where it has specific experience in dealing with cross-border issues.

Andrea McCann, another experienced practitioner, has emerged as a specialist in judicial reviews and the firm has just embarked on a complex judicial review on behalf of one of its key clients, the Ulster Farmer’s Union

Gerard Small heads up an active Private Clients division, which looks after a range of legal issues, not least wills and probate, on behalf of individuals rather than corporate clients.

Meanwhile, Chris Ross has grown and expanded the firm's busy Litigation division, which has been involved in a number of high profile cases here in Northern Ireland. "But one of our fastest growing areas of specialisation has been in property," adds Avril McCammon. "We've bolstered our team to enable us to deliver quality, pragmatic legal advice on any transactions which have a Northern Ireland, English or Republic of Ireland element... without our clients having to look outside Belfast for that advice."

Emma Copeland joined McKee's from a leading City of London firm and is a specialist in commercial property and property finance. Zara Weir also moved back from a firm of specialist property lawyers in England, and adds an expertise in the area of landlord and tenant issues. Malachy Kearney, meanwhile worked for two of the "big five" Dublin law firms and also for the Attorney General's Office, where he advised the Chief State Solicitor on commercial property and construction law issues.

One of the key driving forces of the firm continues to be its senior statesman, Lex Ross, now a consultant with the firm and a leading expert on mergers and acquisitions, MBO's, property funding and the banking aspects of PFI projects.

Avril McCammon is described by the authoritative Chambers Guide as 'clearly belonging in the top tier'. She specialises in M&A's, property finance, business finance and PFI/PPP transactions.
"It's fair to say that Lex and myself have been the faces of this firm for a while," Avril McCammon adds. "But we now have a whole new breed of lawyers at partner level who are helping to drive McKee's forward into a new era."

One new era is already well underway. The firm left its long-time home on Royal Avenue in Belfast at the start of this year to move to newly-built offices on Linenhall Street. "We had been in Royal Avenue, and in Victoria Street before that, for a long time, but we had simply outgrown our offices there. Moving to state of the art new offices has been a boost for everyone at the firm," says Avril.

And the Managing Partner at John McKee & Sons has a clear vision of where she wants to see the practice going. "The first thing is that we want to continue to grow and expand. We've got a strong reputation across a number of specialist areas, and we'll continue to develop those sectors as well as new ones. "We are already No. 1 in the banking sector, and we're up there with the leaders in specialist areas like commercial property and corporate law. "We've got a lot of positive plans for the future and we have a strong, young team in place to take us forward."