Scots law firm McClure Naismith sees profits fall

PROFITS at Scottish law firm McClure Naismith fell for the second year in a row after a rise in costs – the first time that the practice’s profits have been made public.

Turnover edged up to £13.1 million in the year to 30 April from £13m, but the surplus before partners’ pay and profit share dropped by 13 per cent to £2.9m, according to accounts filed at Companies House.

That followed a 15 per cent fall in the previous financial year.

Pay for members of Glasgow-based McClure Naismith’s limited liability partnership rose to £1m from £757,000, leaving 26 per cent less to be distributed as profit-share, at £1.9m.

The practice overhauled its pay structure in October, with performance now playing a role in partners’ pay packages, it said at the time.

Partners can now be moved down, as well as up, the equity ladder.

While the firm’s turnover figure had been released along with details of the restructuring, the accounts are a milestone in being the first time profits have been divulged.

As part of last autumn’s shake-up, Robin Shannon, a senior commercial and financial services partner, took over as executive chairman of the practice, which also has branches in Edinburgh and London.

Shannon told The Scotsman yesterday: “We had hoped that turnover would have grown by more than it did and probably hadn’t cut our cloth in terms of costs as appropriately as we could have. In the current financial year, we have taken more costs out of the business.”

Shannon said this included a small number of redundancies, but the firm had also looked at the costs of services and whether staff who had left needed to be replaced.

He said his tax-backed property team had seen an upturn in business, while its financial services regulatory team was busier in the current financial year.

Turnover rose by 5 per cent in December to more than £3m.