MacLay Murray & Spens flying higher once again

MACLAY Murray & Spens, one of Scotland's heavyweight corporate law firms, saw profits per equity partner rise by more than 20 per cent to £265,000 last year, new figures reveal.

Although turnover dipped by 5.4 per cent to 52.5m in the year to 31 May, cost-cutting helped net profits at the firm rise by 15 per cent to 15.2m.

Chief executive Magnus Swanson described the figures as an "excellent performance" against a very difficult backdrop but said he remained cautious about the immediate outlook.

"The market is still bumping along the bottom and it still feels very fragile to me. Hopefully we will go forward again this year but it will be a similar upwards tweak rather than a major move."

He said the firm's diversity had helped it weather the worst of the downturn.

"Our litigation, regulatory and intellectual property teams have been very been doing well but others such as property and corporate transactions have been having a tough time of it."

Although the practice, with 513 staff and 67 partners across offices in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, laid off 38 staff in April 2009, no redundancies were made in the last financial year.

Swanson said he was hopeful of starting to recruit staff and the firm is planning to retain a higher number of its qualifying trainees than last year.