THE chief executive of Shepherd & Wedderburn believes there will be more merger activity in the Scottish legal sector but says the firm he heads is not looking for any deals.
Stephen Gibb revealed S&W has come off an extremely busy September and current trading is "pretty good" across practices including energy, property, private client and dispute resolution.
The firm has acted on a number of notable deals in recent weeks including the sale of printer John Watson & Company to Multi-Color Corporation, the sale of hotel operator Chardon Management to Insterstate and Iomart's £23 million acquisition of Backup Technology.
The Shepherd and Wedderburn Financial division, set up after the acquisition of independent financial adviser Muirfield in October last year, is also said to be performing well.
Mr Gibb said: "You can't take the market for granted but our guys are doing well."
Mr Gibb, who has been in his current post since mid-2012, laughed off recent rumours S&W had been in talks over a merger with fellow top-tier Scottish firm Dundas & Wilson.
He said: "One of the things I wanted to do when I came in [as chief executive] was sit down and have a chat with other managing partners. I have met [Dundas & Wilson's] Alan Wernham for coffee. I've met Chris Smyllie at [Maclay, Murray & Spens] and others.
"Are we looking for mergers? No we are not and I'm happy to say we are not.
"We are in a very fortunate position because if you don't have to go out and do something you can take a long hard look at what you want to do. If the right thing appears, you can do it but we don't have to and there are others in the market who are not in that position."
Mr Gibb characterised S&W's financial position as "no net debt, strong reserves and cash in the bank" and said that combination was attractive to clients and prospective new employees.
He said: "Clients are looking at legal businesses in ways they never have before and saying, are they going to be around in two, three, four, five years to continue the work they are doing for us?"
While the firm he runs, which employs around 400 people including 61 partners, may not be pursuing mergers at the moment, Mr Gibb does believe there will be more deals in the Scottish market.
He said: "We have seen the big insurance push with the likes of Biggart Baillie and DWF but I don't think that is finished yet.
"There are big insurer players in the City who do not have Scottish practices and what we hear the major instructors of that kind of insurance work are saying get a [UK] brand."
Mr Gibb believes the opening of Ashurst in Glasgow, with an emphasis on back office support for its London-based legal staff, offers a model which other firms might follow.
He said: "It is interesting to see as a number of City firms realise overheads are too big and they look elsewhere to cut their costs.
"We are already in a low-cost environment [in Scotland] compared to the City but with a high-quality workforce and doing high-quality work.
"We can sell an ability to have high-class people on the ground [in London] and use our Scottish workforce to create a cost-effective proposition for clients. We see an enormous opportunity with that, not a threat."
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