LIVERPOOL Law Society's inaugural Legal Awards take place this Saturday night.
Guests at the black tie event, at the Crowne Plaza hotel, will enjoy a champagne reception followed by five-course dinner, before the city's solicitors, barristers and firms find out who will be crowned the best performers of the year.
"The awards are a fantastic opportunity for Liverpool lawyers to show we have got the knowledge and the expertise to rival any large commercial city in England and Wales," said Helen Broughton, whose tenure as LLS president passed to Donal Bannon this year.
"We want to celebrate that and show off the excellent talent that we have got in the city.
"The awards are a new idea because we were conscious that we perhaps don't applaud the hardworking and successful lawyers that we have as much as we should," she said.
Some of the best legal teams in the region will be competing in 10 categories, which include the President's award for pro-bono work, sponsored by the Daily Post.
The other categories are:
Assistant solicitor of the year;
Barrister of the year;
Employment team of the year;
Real Estate Team of the Year;
Dispute Resolution Team;
Corporate Team of the Year;
Management Team of the Year;
Specialist Law Firm of Year;
Law Firm of the Year.
Brabners Chaffe Street, DLA Piper and Harkin Lloyd are the big three battling it out in the Law Firm of the Year category.
Bill Braithwaite QC and David Turner QC of Exchange Chambers (joint nomination), Scott Donovan of Atlantic Chambers and Tanya Griffiths QC are competing for the Barrister of the Year award.
Host for the evening will BBC Radio Merseyside personality Roger Phillips. The winners will be decided by a panel of judges including Daily Post assistant business editor Tony McDonough.
Entertainment from the Beatles tribute band, the Blue Meanies, will be among the bands keeping people dancing into the night.
Liverpool Law Society is one of the largest and oldest organisations of its kind with more than 2,000 local members.
It offers continuing education opportunities and support and responds well as being able to respond to government proposals.
Veronica Wright, of the Society, said: "The Legal Awards have been set up to celebrate legal excellence in Liverpool and the surrounding area."
Details of the winners will be published in the Daily Post’s Legal Week page next Tuesday, and online at: www. liverpooldailypost.co.uk