Scots heavyweights join forces as legal merger fever continues

The tie-up will see the formation of Burness Paull & Williamsons, creating one of the largest firms based solely north of the Border.

Philip Rodney and Ian Wattie, respectively the chairman and managing partner of Edinburgh-based Burness, will take the top roles at the new firm.

Scott Allan, the managing partner of Paull & Williamsons (P&W), will become deputy managing partner, while its chairman, Gordon Buchan, who resigned as a partner of the Aberdeen-based practice earlier this year, will sit on the board as a consultant.

The merger between the two firms, which will be completed on 1 December, will create a combined entity with a turnover of £37.6 million based on 2011-12 figures. Burness Paull & Williamsons will have 400 staff including 60 partners and 158 lawyers, ranking it behind Brodies as the largest law firm in terms of turnover and partners based in Scotland.

Scotland’s legal sector has witnessed a spate of consolidation in recent months, with McGrigors merging with Pinsent Masons and Biggart Baillie teaming up with DWF. Other Scottish heavyweights Dundas & Wilson and Maclay Murray Spens have also been linked to potential mergers that have collapsed.

Rodney said the “true merger” of the two firms was strategic rather than defensive.

“It is very different from the others. This isn’t a merger for the sake of merger,” he said. “It is a merger to deliver a strategy – and that is a strategy that both firms have had – to be at the top of the Scottish market.

“Other ones have been quite defensive, with Scottish law firms becoming branch offices of mid-market English firms.”

He said that staff levels would remain the same at the merged firm, with offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

“We have three different offices. It is as not as thought there is any overlap.”

The tie-up has been under discussion between the two firms for the past six months.

“We made no secret of the fact that we would like to be in Aberdeen. We wanted to ensure we had the best oil and gas credentials,” said Rodney.

He said the combined firm would have “synergies”, combining Burness’s private equity and renewables practice with P&W’s specialism in the oil and gas sector. The tie-up will also allow Burness to introduce its pensions advisory service to the Aberdeen market.

Rodney dismissed establishing an office in London as it would “dilute” referrals from larger London-based practices.

“We work for all the magic circle firms. We aren’t seen as a competitor. As soon as you badge yourself up in the London market that kind of referral work is diluted.”

Allan said: “Both firms have had several approaches to merge in the past, but it is hard to imagine a better fit.

“Our culture, ambitions and focus on quality are shared; our geography, clients and expertise are complementary and our combined objective, to be the leading Scottish commercial law firm serving Scottish, UK and international clients in and from Scotland, reflects our common ethos.”