Pinsent Masons hit £800m deals mark

Deputy Business Editor

Monday 17 September 2012

PINSENT Masons lawyers in Scotland have acted on £800 million worth of transactions in the first three months following its merger with McGrigors.

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Greig Cameron Deputy Business Editor

Fraser McMillan, head of the Glasgow office, believes the figure is an indication of how smoothly the merger process has gone.

Between May and the end of July, Pinsent acted on deals including a £160m recycling and renewable energy centre in Glasgow, a loan facility worth more than £100m for Xcite Energy and advised Sir Robert McAlpine on the building of head offices in Aberdeen for North Sea firms Apache, Nexen and Transocean.

Mr McMillan said: "From day one people have been digging in, mixing and getting involved in common projects and with clients."The first quarter has shown people have not been too distracted by the internal goings on. We are now starting to understand the potential of the wider business and what we can do for clients."The scale means we can bring more resources to bear in particular sectors and relationships. "Simply having more bodies means we are able to make those kind of investments in long-term projects and particular service lines for our clients."In a market where there is not a lot happening we have been delighted to be involved in some of the bigger deals."The combined business has a substantial international footprint and certain clients in Scotland have ambitions in that regard and we are talking to them about what we can do in that regard."Mr McMillan highlighted the firm's energy practice as one area that had been doing well and has potential to grow further.Pinsent has recently picked up a range of work for SSE on its offshore wind project in the Moray Firth. Mr McMillan said: "Both firms had been rivals to each other, particularly in renewable, and bringing those two teams has produced an astounding offering."There had been concerns raised prior to the merger that the combined firm would have less of a focus on Scotland.At the moment the Pinsent board includes Scottish-based lawyers Richard Masters, Laura Cameron, Alastair Morrison and Kirk Murdoch while it employs more than 500 lawyers. Mr McMillan said Scotland is an important part of the firm's offering and he expects to continue adding to the number of lawyers based here.He said:" Post-merger many, many Scottish-based lawyers have important roles with a lot of influence in the business. "We are seeing a deep integration of former McGrigor's lawyers in all aspects of the business because the quality, client relationships and sector expertise is there."We think there is a high degree of high-quality work to do for clients in Scotland and we will continue to invest to do that kind of work. "We are able to offer people the opportunity to work around the world on projects and we have lots of examples of people doing that from Scotland. "I like the idea we can have people living in Scotland but still getting access to the quality of work we can offer around the world. "So our growth potential in Scotland is not purely tied to work here."

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Pinsent Masons hit £800m deals mark

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