North-east recovery gives law firm a boost

The practice, and its Golden Square Wealth Management subsidiary, grew revenues 3 per cent to £9.9 million in the year to 31 March, with pre-tax profits edging up 2.5 per cent to £3.5m.

But profit per partner – or “member” of the firm’s limited-liability partnership (LLP) – fell to £136,000 from £141,000 after new partners were added.

The results come five years after a major resturcturing at the practice, which included its oil and gas team joining “Big Four” law firm McGrigors and the formation of the current LLP.

Chairman David Laing said: “At the financial year-end in 2010, we did not anticipate any significant short term recovery and that outlook has been confirmed across most business sectors, including our own.

“One of the most significant changes in the overall shape of legal business in recent years has been the drop evident in transactional work, in corporate finance transactions including merger, acquisition and disposal of companies and businesses, to larger-scale commercial property sales and purchases. At the same time the demand for non-transactional advisory and litigation services has grown and this has helped to maintain and indeed increase our overall level of activity.”

The firm – which has an office in Inverness and a small Court of Session team in Edinburgh – said its headcount had remained “steady” at 150, with private client partner Douglas Watson joining from Adam Cochrane and corporate law associate Rod Hutchison being promoted, swelling the partnership to 26.

Ledingham Chalmers is the latest Scottish law firm to post results, with Burness earlier this month unveiling a 10 per cent increase in turnover to £23.4m, with profits up 14 per cent to £10.5m to give partners’ pay a 21 per cent rise to £373,000 each.

Last month, Brodies posted a 3 per cent rise in revenues to £36.9m, with profits up 13 per cent to £14.4m.