Leading lawyers lead:: Legal firms to merge | Herald Scotland

Tuesday, 24 January, 2012 Leave a comment

Never mind the opportunity for “Alternative Business Structures” with this and another recent high profile, potential, merger, proactive Scottish legal firms are showing other Professions that, decisiveness in uncertain times, is certainly possible. We can only hope they can really seize the opportunity to innovate and to differentiate their client proposition.

After all, when your marketplace is already crowded with, at best, “stagnant” demand, slugging it out on price with increasingly desperate competitors to provide legal services to firms whose own financial pressures mean they can ill-afford to pay for the services they need and CAN’T afford to do without!

Conventional economics may be flawed but, when supply, significantly, outstrips demand and is scheduled to do so for the foreseeable future dynamic leadership is required.

The aim is to grow in the private client arena with the team there increasing in size by 30% with the incoming staff.

The firm will still be known as Tods Murray with offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow but will now have 35 partners and 188 fee earners.

It comes less than a week after McGrigors and Pinsent Masons announced that they were in advanced negotiations over what would be one of the biggest mergers seen in the Scottish legal sector.

David Dunsire, executive partner at Tods Murray, said: “We are delighted as we believe Fyfe Ireland will be a really good fit for our practice.

“In Greig, Drew and their Fyfe Ireland team, we have gained some of Scotland’s best talent. A merger is not just defensive in this economic climate but is really about building for the future.

via Legal firms Tods Murray and Fyfe Ireland to merge | Herald Scotland.