Law giant in search for Scots partners

DLA Piper, the international law firm, is seeking to take advantage of the turmoil in the Scottish legal market to expand its partner base in the Central Belt.

In his first interview since taking over as Scottish managing partner at DLA at the turn of the year, Simon Rae said the firm has put out "any number" of mandates with headhunters to recruit solicitors specialising in potential growth areas such as the life sciences, public sector, transport and corporate dealmaking.

DLA will tomorrow announce that it has poached Gareth Parry, formerly a partner and head of the construction and engineering at McGrigors, and it plans to further expand its stable of 23 partners in Scotland over the next couple of months.

Rae told Scotland on Sunday: "We have any number of mandates with headhunters right now. It's not just one or two. We haven't reached saturation in our part of the market yet and we have the ability to grow through strategic, lateral hires and organically."

Rae refused to disclose the precise number of partners DLA is planning to appoint this year in Scotland, saying that it would depend on the individuals it is able to attract. However, he said the figure is likely to be significant at a time when the rest of the Scottish legal market is struggling with recession.

A recent survey of the UK's top 100 law firms by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed profits in the market fell 30 per cent last year with Scottish firms suffering an even greater fall than firms south of the Border.

Rae said that because of its global nature, DLA has been sheltered from some of the more severe problems experienced by Scottish law firms last year.

Turnover at its Scottish practice fell 3 million to 15m in 2009 but Rae said there was a pick-up in the closing three months. The firm succeeded in increasing the average fees per partner last year to 800,000.