The recent move by four Charles Russell Speechlys (CRS) partners to break away and launch specialist sports firm Northridge is just one example of a wider trend of sports and media lawyers leaving larger, more traditional firms to set up shop in tightly-focused boutiques.

Just weeks before the opening of Northridge, three former Couchmans partners launched City sports, media and entertainment boutique Level Law, while recent years have also seen the launch of sports-centric firms such as Manchester's Centrefield and London's Onside Law, by ex-lawyers from Brabners and Clifford Chance respectively.

Though small in terms of lawyers, these firms act for some of sport's best-known stars and biggest regulatory bodies. Northridge boast clients including the Football Association, the Welsh Rugby Union and England footballers Dele Alli (pictured right) and Raheem Sterling, while this summer Centrefield advised Manchester United on the £75m signing of star striker Romelu Lukaku (pictured above) from Everton. Both law firms have just four partners.

Centrefield founding partner Matthew Bennett attributes the sports spinoff trend to the financial demands that large firms place on partners in niche practice areas, as well as the appeal of managing client relationships more independently.

Bennett says: "As a smaller practice with a lower cost base, we are likely to have less pressure than larger firms in terms of overheads, turnover and profit targets, which enables us to offer more flexibility in how we charge and the services we can offer. That enables us to take a longer view with both existing and potential clients."

Co-founding partner David Bentham adds: "Larger firms differ in terms of individual targets on fee earners and the need for a more immediate financial return. Everyone in our firm is ambitious, but within bigger firms there is a more competitive environment between lawyers about who is doing what kinds of work."

Northridge co-founder and former CRS sport co-head Ian Lynam adds: "When you are a specialist with a particular sector focus, especially if that sector is within sport, having control over how you go to market, work, bill clients and work internally is very valuable."

Bennett and Bentham also refer to the importance of visibility in the sports field. Having people know your expertise and being easily approachable, they say, is key.

"We felt there would be more clarity about our services if we were not packaged as part of a multi-practice law firm," Bennett says, "We felt a strong and clear brand would make it easier for clients in the sector to identify us, rather than having to click through multiple webpages of a larger law firm."

Level Law founding partner Daniel Lowen similarly points to the need for specialist sports lawyers to be client-facing.

Lowen says: "We focus on the fact that the majority of clients in the sports business want a senior and trusted expert who genuinely understands their industry, business or activities, pressures and opportunities.

"One of the advantages of a more streamlined firm is that a potential client who is not sure where to turn can pick up the phone and be speaking with a genuine expert in the field within seconds. Ultimately, we felt that a lot of the constraints associated with traditional law firms are avoidable when you are servicing a client with who you have that level of relationship."

The emergence of boutique sports firms has also coincided with the growth in "scale and sophistication" of the sports and media industry, according to Lynam. With that, he says, "the level of legal services required has got more complex".

Lowen says: "The rapid pace of development in the sports industry is incredible – there are profound changes in the sports media field; for example, new entrants, new technologies, new ways of consuming sports content, the irrepressible rise of e-sports, major governance and integrity issues, and spiralling transfer fees.

"Of course, that means there is an ever-growing need for senior experts who can assist their clients to navigate through fast-moving and sometimes uncharted territory. I think the reality is that as the industry matures and develops, clients appreciate the deep relationships we build with them and the added value that we bring."