Our latest financial results and senior hires

Firstly, we’ve made some high profile hires in Aberdeen and Edinburgh; secondly we’re announcing our 2022/23 financial results — recording the highest turnover since we became an LLP in 2006.

Plus, our headcount has grown by just over 25% since April 2022, exceeding 200 for the first time.

Senior hires

Partner Mike Morrice joined our commercial property team in Aberdeen in October from Burness Paull, and Gary Hunt came on board in November as Head of HR, also in Aberdeen. Mr Hunt has around 25 years’ HR experience in the energy sector.

Another senior hire, Edinburgh-based Coral Bain, came on board in the newly created pan-Scotland head of risk and compliance role in October, overseeing aspects such as Law Society of Scotland standards and regulations, anti-money laundering (AML) rules and data protection.

Coming from Addleshaw Goddard, she is a qualified solicitor with specialist experience in construction and engineering disputes as well as in professional regulatory risk, ethics, and governance.

Financial detail

Ledingham Chalmers’ turnover for 2022/23 was £13.4 million, our highest since becoming a limited liability partnership (LLP) in 2006.

Group turnover, including our subsidiary Ledingham Chalmers Financial, was £14.2million, compared with £13.6million in 2021/22. Pre-tax profit was slightly down on the year before — £3.5million compared with £4million.

Much of that difference in profit is due to investment in our fast-growing workforce combined with factors affecting all businesses such as inflation and higher operating overheads.

All that means we’re not wedded to the numbers we outlined in 2019 to double turnover to £25million by 2025.

We’re operating in a competitive post-pandemic marketplace for attracting and retaining talent and continue to benchmark salaries as part of our long-term sustainable growth strategy. We also allocated just under £280,000 in non-contractual bonuses in the last financial year, including through the performance-related pay scheme.

Headcount and hires

Since January 2023, 31 people have joined the firm and our headcount on 31 October 2023 was 210 (compared with 166 in April 2022), including 27 partners, with a further five people set to join before the end of November. Recruitment is also underway for five posts: four lawyers and a paralegal.

Other recent senior hires include in our pan-Scotland rural team, with senior associate Lynne McElroy joining in Stirling and associate Anna Moir coming on board in Aberdeen this summer, while senior associate Laura Hay joined the Granite City’s commercial property team at the start of November.

Also in Stirling, and as part of plans to broaden our legal offering there, senior associate Suzie Falconer joined in January in the private client team, advising clients on all aspects of succession planning, powers of attorney and estate administration.

In Inverness, the headcount has grown by more than 30 since last November, including 19 colleagues who joined when Ledingham Chalmers acquired Anderson Shaw & Gilbert.

External recognition

We’re consistently ranked in legal directories and in the 2024 Legal 500 and Chambers UK 2024 18 people and seven disciplines were recognised: corporate and commercial, employment, personal injury — defender, agriculture and rural affairs, construction, commercial property, and insolvency and corporate recovery.

Rural partner Hazel Moir was shortlisted for Private Client Lawyer of the year at the Legal 500 Scotland awards event this month and I was recently named Managing Partner of the Year at the Scottish Legal Awards — an accolade I am grateful for and humbled by in equal measure.

We were also highly commended in the Herald Law Awards of Scotland corporate social responsibility category.