Managing Partner: Bill Drummond
Chairman: Joyce Cullen
- Number of partners: 71
- Assistant solicitors: 146
- Other fee-earners: 81
THE FIRM Brodies LLP offers clients the largest specialist legal resource in Scotland. As well as numerous practice areas being top-ranked by independent international legal directories, the firm has won numerous industry awards and plaudits for its client services, innovation, use of technology, commercial awareness and business acumen - and was named the UK’s ‘Regional/National Law Firm of the Year’ for 2011 by The Lawyer magazine. The firm provides business-focused advice to virtually every sector of the Scottish economy, and our client base includes companies and individuals from Scotland, the UK and across the globe, as well as the Scottish Government and numerous public sector organisations.
With a talent bank of lawyers which includes some of the UK’s foremost legal experts, Brodies can provide specialist expertise, whatever the legal requirement – from commercial contracts to government regulation. Such expertise is not limited solely to Scottish jurisdictional work – the capability to undertake complex cross-border transactions is strengthened by active membership of European and global legal networks.
Brodies continues to expand its business – launching a new office in Aberdeen, fully integrated with the firm’s operations in Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as recruiting 12 new partners in 2010/11, growing its teams in oil and gas, property, banking, corporate finance, life sciences, employment litigation, shipping, fishing and marine, and competition law. Brodies’ commitment to innovation and outstanding legal service has continued to be widely recognised – following UK-wide surveys in 2010, Legal Week magazine named Brodies the UK’s ‘Best Legal Employer’ and identified the firm as No.1 in Scotland for ‘Best Legal Technology’.
PRINCIPAL AREAS OF WORK
Corporate: boosted by three new partners, the team advises major private corporates and public bodies, and has exceptional credentials in listings and fund-raising, private equity, general M&A, major cross-border transactions, regulatory, privatisation and government work. In addition to its corporate finance expertise, the team offers specialisms in PPP, PFI and projects; funds; corporate tax; IP, IT, and outsourcing; together with strong experience in the public authority, transport, technology, life sciences, education, oil and gas, and renewable energy sectors. There is also a strong corporate tax offering,with particular expertise in VAT, stamp duty, and taxation of property.
Banking, Restructuring & Insolvency: The team is distinguished by its combination of commercial insight and understanding of the varied needs of the banking sector – whether for complex transactions, new product development, legal risk management, or regulatory compliance. Adding to its partner numbers, the team has strengthened its significant in-house experience with large financial institution clients; expertise in retail banking, contentious banking, securitisation and structured finance, asset finance, and funds; as well as a full specialist team experienced in all forms of insolvency and corporate restructuring.
Property: Brodies has one of the largest, most diversely skilled, and most highly rated departments in Scotland, offering a comprehensive service for all kinds of property deal or project. Strengthened by new partner hires, expertise includes investment and finance, commercial, residential and mixed-use development, out-of-town and high street retail, leisure, hospitality, licensing, agriculture and estates and land diversification, urban regeneration and construction, outsourcing projects and property litigation.
Dispute Resolution & Litigation: The firm has arguably the largest team and strongest capability in Scotland, further augmented by new partners. Specialisms include commercial and contractual disputes, health and safety, compliance, insurance, professional negligence, personal injury, risk management, family law and property litigation. In addition, Brodies fields an outstanding public law team (with wide experience of parliamentary, local authority, freedom of information, and human rights issues), boosted by the recent arrival of a competition law QC with wide experience of UK and European courts.
Employment & Pensions: As the largest, most specialised team in Scotland, Brodies’ Employment Department has been recognised repeatedly by legal directories as top-tier. Enhanced by the addition of a new partner, and with an integrated, specialist pensions team, the department assists HR and in-house legal teams across the UK, and offers specialist advice in employment tribunal litigation, mediation and alternative dispute resolution, employee relations, remuneration and benefits, contract and policy development, executive appointment and termination, as well as all types of pension law aspects.
Private Client: The firm’s Private Client Team is well respected in Scotland, both for its traditional work in estate planning, wills, trusts, tax, divorce, separation and custody, asset protection, charities and executries, in multi-jurisdictional areas, and for its ground-breaking innovations such as developing (Scottish) family limited partnerships.