Acquisition drives profits at legal firm McGrigors

MCGRIGORS has cemented its position as Scotland's largest law firm by turnover after growing its revenues by 10 per cent to £65.6 million thanks to a key acquisition and an upturn in corporate activity.

Accounts filed at Companies House show that profits grew by 8 per cent to 17.2m in the year to 30 September.

But average profit per member of the firm's limited liability partnership (LLP) fell from 192,000 in 2009 to 179,000 after the number of members grew from 83 to 96.

The profit allocated to the member with the largest entitlement also dropped, from 417,000 down to 363,000.

McGrigors, along with rival Dundas & Wilson (D&W), has re-positioned itself in recent years as a UK-wide rather than a "big four" Scottish law firm.

That process continued with the takeover in October 2009 of Belfast-based law firm L'Estrange & Brett, boosting both top- and bottom-line growth at the Edinburgh-based firm.

Managing partner Richard Masters, below, told The Scotsman: "There's no doubt that a reasonably-large chunk of the turnover increase came from L'Estrange & Brett but the rest of the business has been growing too.

"Since the year-end, activity levels across the firm have been rising and we've been involved in a number of big deals, including the sale of Forth Ports and fund raising for dating website operator Cupid."

The L'Estrange takeover - which cost 1.2m according to the latest accounts - helped grow McGrigors' headcount from 667 to 749 over the year.

Paul McBride, a corporate partner at L'Estrange, was promoted to McGrigors' board in March to reflect the growth of the Northern Ireland practice.

At the same time, the firm elevated Jason Collins, who is in charge of the firm's professional and financial services team, and Bob Ruddiman, head of its energy practice, to the board, signalling the firm's growth areas.

McGrigors said it had won larger contracts following the takeover of L'Estrange than either firm could previously have handled, including due diligence on property relating to the 67m sale of Tate & Lyle's molasses business to commodities group W&R Barnett.

Since the year-end, McGrigors has continued with its expansion plans, opening a Middle East office in Qatar in March and forming a transatlantic partnership with US law firm Husch Blackwell in April. James Elwen, a London-based partner in the energy and infrastructure practice, relocated to Doha to run the Qatari operation.

Other deals in which the firm was involved include December's 600m takeover of Aberdeen-based Production Services Network by Wood Group and Edinburgh-based software firm Craneware's acquisition in February of US rival ClaimTrust.

McGrigors last year replaced arch rival D&W as Scotland's largest law firm for the first time in four years.D&W's turnover fell by 8 per cent to 61m in the year to 30 April, but the firm was still ahead in the earnings stakes, with profit per equity partner standing at 317,000.

Accounts for the year to 31 May, 2010, showed that turnover at rival Maclay Murray & Spens fell by 4.6 per cent to just under 52.5m, although a tight grip on costs helped push profits up 4.2 per cent to some 15m. Its headcount fell by 45 to 433, with the number of partners falling from 73 to 65.