Profits drop at Maclays as ‘big four’ swap places

Profit per equity partner at MMS dropped by 22 per cent to £211,000 in the year to 31 May, with the total surplus falling to £11.2 million from £14.3m, new figures reveal.

Turnover slipped 13 per cent to £40.9m following the sale of MMS’s Law at Work subsidiary last year, which had accounted for £1.7m of revenues. The fall means that Edinburgh-based Brodies replaces MMS as the second-largest law firm in Scotland, as measured by revenue.

Chris Smylie, chief executive at Glasgow-based MMS, said: “The pace and scale of change in the legal services sector has been extraordinary and we fully expect change to be a continuing feature of legal practice.

“We remain of the view that adding scale without regard to long-term profitability is the wrong thing to do.”

Smylie added: “These results come at the end of a year which saw the firm carry out a root and branch strategic review.”

Last week, rival Dundas & Wilson (D&W) reported a 10 per cent fall in turnover to £48.7m for the year to 30 April, with pre-tax profit down 27 per cent to £12.8m and profit per equity partner falling to £164,000 from £210,000.

Figures posted earlier this month by Brodies showed a 7.5 per cent increase in revenue to £46.01m for the year to 30 April, with operating profits rising by 9.3 per cent to £19.3m.

Shepherd & Wedderburn (S&W) meanwhile has posted a 3 per cent dip in turnover to £35.9m in the year to 30 April, with profits falling by 2 per cent to £10.3m and its profit per equity partner decreasing by 4 per cent to £251,000.

The rush of data – with the MMS and S&W figures compiled by Legal Business magazine – showed that D&W hung on to its position as the largest of Scotland’s “big four”, with S&W left in fourth place.

The make-up of the “big four” changed last year following the takeover of McGrigors by international law firm Pinsent Masons.