Maclay Murray & Spens is in talks with English firm Addleshaw Goddard over a merger.

The 144-year-old Maclays, Scotland’s third biggest surviving independent law firm, has been in merger negotiations since the summer, but both firms have yet to give partnership approval. Addleshaws is thought to have proposed a merger date of May 1 next year when its current senior partner steps down.

Maclays chief executive Kenneth Shand, an experienced corporate dealmaker, told The Herald earlier this year the firm was being “both proactive and reactive” in considering potential tie-ups with bigger firms.

Addleshaws has 684 lawyers and offices in London, Manchester, Leeds, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Middle East, and a merger would give it a base in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Maclays’ £43.5m turnover last year put it behind Brodies and Burness Paull among Scottish independents, and it has 61 partners.

The firm was for years one of the 'big three' in Scotland behind McGrigor Donald and Dundas & Wilson, both now merged with large English partners. In 2012 McGrigors accepted a marriage with Pinsent Masons to create a £280million firm , then in 2014 Dundas & Wilson agreed a £300m tie-up with CMS Cameron McKenna.

The combined turnover of Maclays and Addleshaws last year was £236m. The English firm increased its turnover by 12per cent while Maclays’ revenues were £200,000 ahead.

However the Scottish firm’s net profit was up seven per cent to £13m, with profit per equity partner at £283,000. Addleshaw's 137 partners each earned £491,000.

Mr Shand, 55, who joined the firm as a trainee, was elected chief executive last year. In a Herald interview in February he said: “We have to not reject any approaches just because they seem big and scary, we have got to look at what is right for the business and the clients, and where the market is heading.”

Maclays was in talks in 2012 with the Bristol-based Bond Pearce, but no deal emerged.

Mr Shand said there was “a move towards scale, particularly in areas like the institutional client base and the larger corporates - more and more of them are going either national or global, and as they increase in scale, they are looking for bigger advisory teams”.

He said the firm was “very happy with our performance” adding that Maclays was not under pressure to do any deal as “we have always been conservatively run, we have a very good business, a stable business, a great client base, great people, so we have a great opportunity”.

Maclays has recovered from a slump three years ago when turnover fell by 13 per cent and profits by 23 per cent, prompting over 30 lay-offs mainly in its corporate and property teams. Its headcount which peaked at 500, when it was heavily involved in leveraged property deals for Bank of Scotland before the crash, is now back above 400.Corporate and commercial work is around 40per cent of its business, commercial property 28per cent, litigation 17 per cent and private client 15 per cent, according to the Chambers directory. In 2014 Maclays was the leading Scottish

independent by corporate deal value.

Addleshaw Goddard said a merger was "an option we keep under regular review, but there’s nothing to report".

A spokesman for Maclay Murray & Spens said: “MMS keeps in touch with other firms on an ongoing basis and sometimes such discussions encompass the possibility of collaboration of some kind. Many of these conversations are exploratory and come to nothing."