Further the Northern Circuit has always been a place for generating new ideas and making them work. In 1989 barristers and solicitors involved in commercial work in the area, together with members of the business and commercial communities, saw a need for a new type of court, a Mercantile List as it is now called. We supported their idea wholeheartedly and gave them all the help we could. In 1990 Mercantile lists were set up in Liverpool and Manchester. The success of these Lists has resulted in similar Lists being put in place in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne.
Specialisation is more important now than it has ever been.
Specialisation centred on great cities such as Liverpool and Manchester and yet making itself available further afield, both nationally and internationally, can only be a benefit to everyone. P.C. Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, London, April 1997 His Honour Judge Michael Kershaw Q.C. Judge of the Liverpool and Manchester Mercantile Lists, Manchester, April 1997.