Crowded legal market facing 'very tough' times

COMMERCIAL law firm Burness has raised the warning flag over conditions in Scotland's embattled legal market, cautioning that there is no prospect of improvement in the "short to medium term".

The Edinburgh-based firm, which employs more than 230 at its two central belt offices, delivered its bleak evaluation as it posted a 14 per cent rise in net profit to 10.5 million against what it described as a "very tough" environment.

Chairman Philip Rodney said Burness had benefited from many of its clients, which include offshore wind developer SeaEnergy, private equity firm BlueGem and Standard Life, continuing to roll out "ambitious" plans.

Its corporate finance team has bucked market trends to secure work on a string of major corporate deals, including BlueGem's acquisition of the iconic London store, Liberty, in June, while the flow of work handled by the renewables team was also "very buoyant", Rodney said.

Turnover grew 10 per cent to 23.4m during the 12 months to 31 July while profit per equity partner rose 21 per cent to 373,000. As a result, Burness yesterday revealed that staff, excluding partners, would receive a 10 per cent bonus for the year.

However, Rodney warned that times ahead would be extremely difficult in Scotland's over-crowded legal market.

"A lot of firms are finding it very tough; at best many are flatlining," he said. "The market for legal services here will not, in our view, improve in the short to medium term and indeed may contract in 2011/12."