Scottish legal heavyweight with 550 staff unveils record annual revenue

Legal firm Thorntons has posted its strongest-ever financial performance thanks to a strong property market, a surge in Scottish tech deals and a backlog of court work.

The Dundee-headquartered firm is now one of the largest full-service players in Scotland, with a headcount that exceeds 550.

Newly published annual results for the year to the end of May 2021 show turnover increasing to a record £31.2 million, up 1.9 per cent on the previous year.

Managing partner Lesley Larg described the result as “tangible proof of the firm’s resilience and ambition, despite the significant challenges of the pandemic”.

Colin Graham and Lesley Larg of Scottish legal firm Thorntons. Picture: Dundee Industrial and Commercial Photography Scotland

She said: “Right across the board, from family and private client work to corporate deal flow - which totalled more than £250m in the last financial year - our increasing performance underlines the confidence clients have in our teams.

“Many law firms decided after the banking crisis of 2008 to withdraw from family law work and conveyancing to concentrate instead on corporate activity,” Larg added.

“In contrast, we were determined that our future lay as a truly full-service legal firm and, as well as making commercial sense, it ensured that we remained firmly embedded in the communities we serve.”

The firm now has 13 offices including in Glasgow, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Perth. During the year, total residential properties sold exceeded 1,500, with a combined sales value of £333m.

Chairman Colin Graham said: “We are proud that we made no redundancies, despite the pressures of Covid and we emerged from the worst of the pandemic with every job intact, thanks in no small part to the furlough scheme.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription: www.scotsman.com/subscriptions