Scottish legal heavyweight welcomes single largest intake of trainee solicitors

Thorntons, the Tayside-headquartered legal firm, has welcomed its single largest intake of trainee solicitors.

L to R Naomi Henderson, Megan Watt, Lucy Hennessy, Beth Simpson, Lauren White, Ross Faulds, Paige McGee, Kirsty Barron, Managing Partner Lesley Larg, Maria Akunna, Chair Colin Graham, Gary McPhail, Ian Sargison, Frankie Cusack, Donald Thomson, Jennifer Harris , Wiktoria Wisniewska, Lauren Pirouet and Georgia McNaughton. Picture by Chris Scott Photography

The 17 graduates start with the firm this month across its Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Perth and Angus offices. Their first of four rotations in the two-year traineeship started this week with all graduates provided with training and mentoring support from day one.

The trainees are being offered a grounding in a wide range of practice areas including employment, corporate and family law, personal injury and civil and commercial litigation. In addition to legal expertise, trainee solicitors will also build upon their general business, commercial and client care skills throughout the two-year traineeship.

Colin Graham, Thorntons’ chairman, said: “We continually strive for strategic growth at Thorntons for our people, our clients and the firm as a whole. It’s been a particularly exciting period as we’ve announced two new offices this year alone; our new Glasgow premises and, most recently, we revealed plans for Inverness. Our investment in our people and our pipeline supports our aspirations and continued success, so it is encouraging to welcome our largest intake of trainees as 17 individuals continue their legal career with us.”

Headquartered in Dundee, the firm has 71 partners and employs more than 550 people across 14 Scottish offices including its Glasgow and Edinburgh locations. In March, Thorntons said it had returned to pre-pandemic growth rates after double-digit gains in both turnover and operating profit.

Accounts for the year ended May 31, 2022 showed that turnover increased by 12 per cent year on year, hitting £35 million, with operating profit growing by 11 per cent to just over £10m. The period marked the first full financial year under Lesley Larg, who became managing partner in June 2021.

Larg said: “It has been a very significant year for the firm which has seen our results return to the double-digit growth we experienced prior to the pandemic. The acquisition of three very successful law firms has only strengthened our offering as a business and the results show across-the-board growth from all our teams. They also highlight the progress of our five-year strategic plan which focuses on organic, sustainable growth in markets where we have industry-leading expertise.”

Scottish legal heavyweight rebounds from Covid with double-digit growth