New partners as Anderson Strathern unveils string of promotions

Scottish legal firm Anderson Strathern has announced a raft of promotions, including at partner level, sealing a year of solid growth.

Some of the capital firms recently promoted partners and lawyers. Picture: Contributed

The Edinburgh-headquartered firm has unveiled three new partner appointments and a senior associate promotion, while three senior solicitors moving up to associate level and five solicitors are promoted to senior solicitor. It also retained all of its second year trainees.

Nick Howie becomes a partner in the firm’s corporate team. He joined the practice in 2017 and clients include Apex Hotels and Dentex Healthcare Group.

Alasdair Johnstone, who trained with Anderson Strathern, becomes a partner in the firm’s private client team, focusing on high net worth individuals.

Stephen McDonagh becomes a partner, leading the firm’s risk and compliance team while also continuing his role as its data protection officer.

In the firm’s top ranked rural land and business team, Sophie Noble is promoted to senior associate, while three senior solicitors have been promoted to associate: Anne Lawrie (commercial property), Russell Laughland (private client) and Stephen Moffat (dispute resolution).

Moving up from solicitor to senior solicitor level are: Emma Crilley (dispute resolution), Jemma Forrest (employment law), Fionnlagh Blair (dispute resolution), Ross Fairweather (dispute resolution) and Scott Fyfe (corporate and commercial).

The firm’s chairman, Bruce Farquhar, said: “Our promotions across all areas and levels of the firm at the start of our new financial year point to our continuing growth.

“The expertise and level of client service offered through the promotions confirms our positioning as a progressive, independent Scottish law firm which has 270 years of heritage combined with a modern and innovative outlook.”

Managing partner Murray McCall added: “It’s really encouraging to see the level of talent that is growing at the firm and it’s great to see our solicitors having the opportunity to further their careers through these promotions.

“Our strong performance in the last financial year has also seen us retain all of our second year trainees going into newly qualified positions across the firm, demonstrating our ability to nurture new legal talent.”

In December, the firm posted a 10 per cent increase in net profits for the year to 31 August and reported record annual revenues of £22.8 million, up from £21.5m in the previous year.

It said its organic growth during the last 12 months had been underpinned by investment in its business support areas and the appointment of key hires.

The firm also cited client wins, panel appointments and increased activity across its private client, commercial and public sector practice groups as drivers of overall growth.

In July of this year, Anderson Strathern launched an investment arm, AS Capital, with an inaugural funding deal to back a Glasgow-headquartered energy tech business.

The legal firm has teamed up with Edinburgh-based angel syndicate Equity Gap to invest in energy sector instrumentation specialist Synaptec, which is a spin-out from the University of Strathclyde.