A law firm which can trace its Norfolk roots back nearly 140 years won the Large Business award, in recognition of its journey to becoming one of the top law firms in the country.

The Norfolk Business Award went to Mills & Reeve, which was founded in the city in 1880.

The firm has been named for a record 15th year running in The Sunday Times' Best 100 Companies to Work For.

More than 200 people are employed by the firm in Norwich, where it has an office at St James Court.

James Hunter, head of the Norwich office, said: 'This is a fantastic achievement for us. We're really proud that we've grown to the scale we have and we can't wait to go back and show everybody in the office this award.'

Matt Skipper of the firm added: 'Our success is down to a number of reasons, the first being how we approach our clients, which is really important to us.

'The other thing is people, the staff who work there love working for us. Recently we found out that 97% of our staff would recommend working at Mills & Reeve to a friend or family member.'

Judges said: 'The final decision exceptionally difficult, noting that continual growth in all shortlisted finalists was impressive. The final decision was between two businesses, with both showing strong competencies in customer care, staff engagement and community involvement.

'However, there can only be one winner – and the winning business is showing impressive growth in a mature market by growing market share against competitors.

'It has an extremely proactive approach to customer relationship, far beyond expected service levels within its sector and it showed really good community interaction, in particular around the education sector.'

The three other finalists in the Large Business category, which was sponsored by City College Norwich, were JD Cooling Group, Natures Menu and Nielsen Brandbank.

Read more about the other winners from the Norfolk Business Awards 2018