Top Scottish firms break recession spell with £438.2m combined turnover
Scotland’s top independent firms have pulled out of the recession in earnest in 2013/14, with the top 20 turning over a combined revenue of £438.2m, a rise of 8 per cent on £406.9m the previous year.
Brodies and Burness Paull have emerged the two market leaders, both expanding to three times the size of pre-recession levels in stark contrast to rivals worse hit by stagnant market conditions.
But the vast majority of firms saw a return to revenue growth after several difficult years, with only Anderson Strathern, Tods Murray, MacRoberts and McClure Naismith dropping in turnover. McClure Naismith dropped the most and by just 6 percentage points, from £12m to £11.3m.
The Scottish legal market today is a different beast to the pre-recession picture, when the so-called ‘big four’ of Dundas & Wilson, Maclay Murray & Spens, McGrigors and Shepherd and Wedderburn dominated.
Many Scottish firms’ traditional focus on property and financial servies led to a series of post-recession mergers. In 2012 McGrigors’ was swallowed up by Pinsent Masons (6 February 2012) and CMS Cameron McKenna gobbled up Dundas & Wilson last year (12 December 2013).
But change might not be over yet. Political uncertainty over the future of Scottish independence is hitting activity and activity has slowed since the start of the 2014/15 financial year with several firms pointing to commercial nervousness in the country.
Source: thelawyer
