LAW firm Burness Paull has posted a bumper set of annual results with profits rising by 25 per cent.
There was also a 20 per cent increase in turnover to £46.3 million which comfortably cements the firm's place in the top tier of the Scottish legal sector.
The gradual improvement in the economy have seen improved results from a number of firms in recent months with Brodies posting a £52.1m turnover, Maclay Murray & Spens £43.3m and Shepherd and Wedderburn £38.3m.
Meanwhile Dundas & Wilson, now part of CMS Cameron McKenna but traditionally one of Scotland's largest firms, booked £47.5 million in its final year as an independent while Pinsent Masons, which merged with McGrigors in May, 2012, has yet to break out its Scottish figures although total turnover was up 4.6 per cent to £323m.
Burness Paull was formed through the merger of Burness and Paull & Williamson in December 2012. It remains the largest tie-up to date between two Scottish firms in a sector that has seen a large amount of consolidation in the past three years.
Yesterday Burness Paull said its net profit for the 12 months to July 31 this year increased from £16.5m to £20.7m.
The growth was said to be spread across all divisions of the firm which operates from bases in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
Chairman Philip Rodney described the financial performance as an "excellent set of results" and highlighted oil and gas, property and infrastructure as well as financial services as sectors which were particularly important.
He said: "We aim to have unrivalled firepower in each."
Among the deals Burness Paull advised on during the financial year were Standard Life's partnership with tennis player Andy Murray and Interserve's proposals for a £200m mixed-use development in the Haymarket area of Edinburgh.
It was also appointed by Aberdeen-based oil and gas giant Wood Group to advise on employment related services including pensions, data protection, immigration and tribunals.
Alongside that Mr Rodney pointed out more than 20 per cent of the business the firm does is now international in its nature.
One transaction saw the firm working for BlueGem Capital Partners on its investment in retailer Mamas & Papas which has operations in dozens of overseas markets.
Mr Rodney said: "Our model has allowed us to work in 55 jurisdictions over the last year - selecting the best independent firms as our partners.
"At the time of our merger, we aspired to be the best commercial law firm operating in Scotland. Our international ambition now means we want to be the best commercial law firm operating from Scotland."
Mr Rodney suggested the firm would not be resting on its laurels and said: "This is a rapidly changing market.
"We always have to look forwards, working with our clients and anticipating their future requirements.
"Our clients define our business strategy and service agenda, not us."
Part of that will involve adding to the 58 partners and 364 staff it has while the firm has also upped the number of trainee lawyers it is taking on by 10 to 24. Mr Rodney described people as the firm's biggest asset and said: "We have been able to attract some real stars over the last year.
"Nurturing and developing our team will continue to be a key driver and we will make significant investment in that this year."
The merged Burness Paull saw a rise in like-for-like turnover to £25.8m in its first eight months of trading to July 31, 2013, which translated into an annual sum of £38.7m.
Despite the jump in turnover there was a small dip in profits at the time, mainly as a result of additional one-off costs arising from the deal including areas such as rebranding and IT.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article