A Bradford law firm which is advising supermarket giant Morrisons on its bid for grocery chain Safeway has completed £30 million worth of deals in the last three months.

Gordons Cranswick, based on Piccadilly, is key adviser to Morrisons in one of the biggest takeover battles of the year.

The firm, which has worked with Morrisons for several years, has completed a range of business sales - including acquisitions and management buy-outs in Bradford and Leeds.

Clients represented by Gordons Cranswick include British Mohair, Transfoam, JCT 600, Pinco, LPMS and Quaestor.

A spokesman said: "With a strong base of active transactions currently approaching completion, this trend could hold up during what could be a difficult first quarter of 2003 for the transactional market generally."

Gordons Cranswick's involvement in the Safeway bid is being led by its corporate group head John Holden who said: "We enjoy an excellent relationship with the client and understand their business well, having represented them for many years. We share similar beliefs and values in our approach to doing business and look forward to what is sure to be an exciting and very busy year for us all."

The firm has also revealed it has attracted several high profile defections from larger law firms.

Executive partner Paul Ayre said "concentrating on its core areas is bringing real results".

He added: "We don't go in for a lot of fashionable packaging of different specialisms but prefer to focus on what we do best - providing sound and pragmatic advice." Pictured are the commercial team Tim Ratcliffe, Julia Lister, Peter Barton and John Holden