St Albans is home to some of the top financial and legal companies both regionally and globally, and boasts the eighth highest rate of employment in professional occupations in England, with expertise and knowledge to rival London firms.

It’s official then, St Albans is a professional services hub and we are very lucky to have city expertise on our doorstep! With over 80 chartered accountancy firms and 50 law firms in St Albans I wonder why local businesses would ever need to use these services outside of the St Albans city? St Albans really is a smart place to live and do business.

In the legal sector we have 13 firms that are Lexcel accredited and 25 firms are professional accreditation scheme members. The Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners undertake in-depth research of UK law firms, and publish their findings online every autumn. Legal 500 covers Herts, Beds, Bucks and Middlesex.

Most of the larger legal firms in this area are Chamber of Commerce members and we are very pleased to be working with them, including SA Law, Debenhams Ottaway, Sherrards and Taylor Walton. Each offers experts in the following areas of law: corporate and commercial, commercial litigation, employment, family, personal tax, trusts and probate, commercial property, intellectual property and real estate planning.

In the financial sector we have 80 chartered accountancy firms based in St Albans, including PWC and Deloitte, two of the top four global accountancy firms which both have regional offices here. We also have large firms such as Aon Hewitt, Kingston Smith and Mercer and Hole.

The Chamber is helping to promote the professional services offering we have to existing businesses in St Albans who may need legal and financial (professional) services and also outside the area. Our target markets include businesses within a one hour drive time, London commuters, potential recruits currently based in London and schools.

The Chamber AGM takes place on Thursday, March 27. The event has been kindly sponsored by Clydesdale Bank and during the evening there will be a very interesting presentation called the St Albans Business Barometer. We are working with Grant Thornton – a local award winning accountancy firm who are currently Global Firm of the Year (The British Accountancy Awards 2013). We look forward to a very informative event at OAs that evening. If you would like to join us please book your place online.

We are planning to work with several other business organisations this year including the Herts branch of the Institute of Directors and the Watford Chamber of Commerce, offering our memebrs the opportunity to meet business delegates from a wider demographic.

These will take place during April and June, and more details are to follow. Keep an eye on the Chamber website events page and book early as we nearly always sell out.

We have two great events in February: a networking lunch at Lussmanns on Thursday, February 13, at 12.30pm and also the ever popular Speed Networking returns on Monday, February 24, at The Bistro, Westminster Lodge. We hope to see you there!

We would like to welcome the following new businesses to the Chamber: Ann Coleman Acountancy, Metro Bank, LN Projects, Bretherton Law, Intoto Kitchens, MHA Macintyre Hudson, Loudbird PR, Assign IT Ltd, Wagamama, Nathalie Bennett Osteopath and Hardy Planning & Design Ltd.