LAW firm Burness Paull & Williamsons has given its staff a 5% bonus after hitting profit targets following last year's merger.

The payment, based on annual salaries, is for all eligible staff below partner level.

The total the firm is paying out is understood to run into several tens of thousands of pounds.

Chairman Philip Rodney said the bonus was designed to help the merger process and get "everyone pulling together" for shared success.

It is understood an annual bonus will continue to be offered if the firm keeps hitting its targets.

Earlier this month Burness Paull revealed it had brought in £25.8 million in turnover between December 1 last year and July 31 with profit at £11m.

The firm said if it extrapolated those figures on a 12-month basis it would have seen a 3.2% increase in turnover to £38.7m compared to the combined results of Burness and Paull & Williamsons in the previous period.

Using the same calculation profit was down 1.6% to £16.5m which the firm attributed to a number of one-off costs relating to the merger including IT integration, rebranding, redundancies and consultancy.

At that time Mr Rodney said the firm is planning for increased growth in 2013/14 and expects to raise its profits as synergies from the merger come through.