Law firm MBM Commercial outlines growth plans including acquisition potential

Legal firm MBM Commercial is expanding its headcount and open to acquisition opportunities as it pursues its strategy of fostering entrepreneurship in Scotland.

The organisation, which was created in 2005 as a result of a buy-out of the commercial business of law firm Murray Beith Murray, has since August had Gail Downes at the helm as managing director.

The businesswoman has been with MBM since its inception, initially as marketing director and then appointed operations and HR boss in 2013. She is not a lawyer by trade but says she has spent more than two decades in the legal profession, and feels she brings a unique perspective.

MBM Commercial senior partner Stuart Hendry and MD Gail Downes. Picture: contributed.

Instead of becoming immersed in legal minutiae like the firm’s lawyers, “I just really tend to manage more by instinct – I’m very hands-on and practical. A growing firm like MBM Commercial needs somebody who can lead the management team and just make sure that we're getting things done."

She pointed out that the organisation, which is based in Orchard Brae House in Edinburgh, now has a headcount of 70, while senior partner Stuart Hendry said it is planning to add ten people in the next year.

He also stated that it has about five US-qualified lawyers on its books, with more set to follow. “That’s a key area,” he explained, noting that the firm now has 11 people in its London office, “and I can see further growth there”.

According to the senior partner, about three quarters of the firm’s business is corporate transactions, and its relevant team, which the firm says is one of the biggest such departments in Scotland, is now about 25-strong, while it uses the services of 20 consultants, meaning it can call on ex-City lawyers.

"The focus is very much on the entrepreneurial landscape, so lots of investment deals, and corporate [merger-and acquisition] deals, tech deals, we’ve got loads of tech clients,” he added.

Advisory

MBM has advised medtech firms such as Carcinotech on its £1.6 million investment from Tri Capital, Eos Advisory, SIS Ventures, Gabriel, Alba Equity, and Scottish Enterprise, and Talking Medicines on its £1.5m capital injection from Term Plc, SIS Ventures, Thairm Bio, and Scottish Enterprise.

Additionally, MBM is one of the organisations behind in-person business event Invest2Scale that is taking place in November, and aims to help revenue-generating scalable Scottish companies that are ready for high-level growth by providing them with direct access to investors and venture capitalists.

Ms Downes is currently focused on meeting all of the team, and making sure the firm is delivering on the business plan, with a key priority to develop its own technology “to improve the client experience”. She added: “I work very closely with the partnership on decision-making and strategy… all the partners share the entrepreneurial spirit that our clients have.”

Mr Hendry said: “We're helping entrepreneurs, we're helping investors set up and scale up. We're helping investors set up investment funds.” He added that MBM is focused on growth of its own client base, keen to grow the firm by acquisition as well as consider new business avenues, and would like to emulate the 18 per cent growth of its latest financial year. “We're involved in all sorts of things. But it's exciting, it's fast-paced. With Gail’s leadership we’re in really good shape to forge ahead.”