Commercial counsel for Scottish business.
We advise companies, their boards and their owners on the agreements, transactions and disputes that determine how a business is built, held and eventually passed on. We are Scottish solicitors, and a good deal of the work crosses borders.
How the practice is organised.
Most of what a business needs from its solicitors is unglamorous work: a shareholders' agreement that deals with the argument nobody expects to have, a lease read properly before it is signed, terms of business that hold up when a counterparty sends their own. The firm has been organised around doing that work well, and not around growth.
There are five partners and two associates. The work on a file is done by the person you instructed, and is not passed down a chain of people you have never met. It follows that we take fewer matters than a practice of our size might, and that we will sometimes say at a first meeting that the work would be better placed with another firm, or with counsel.
The second consequence is discipline about jurisdiction. Scotland has its own legal system, its own courts and its own system of conveyancing, and a great deal of the commercial material in circulation among British businesses assumes otherwise. An English-law template applied to a Scottish lease, a Scottish contract or a Scottish enforcement question will sometimes fail outright, and not merely read oddly.
That discipline matters more in work that crosses borders, not less. A substantial part of what we do involves a party, an asset or a beneficiary outside Scotland: foreign buyers of Scottish businesses, inward investment, groups holding subsidiaries in several countries, and families whose affairs reach into more than one legal system. We advise on Scots law, instruct lawyers qualified elsewhere where the answer turns on another system, and are careful to say which part of the advice is ours.
The firm also acts for private clients. Our Managing Partner looks after a small number of individuals and families of substantial means, on succession, trusts and the structuring of personal wealth. Most come to that work through a company we already act for, and a good many of them hold assets in more than one country.
The firm does not aim to be the largest commercial practice in Glasgow and has never tried to become one.
Ten areas of practice.
Each area is led by the partner or associate who works in it continuously. The list has been kept short so that the firm takes on only the work it is properly equipped to do.
Corporate & Company Law
The constitution and governance of private companies registered in Scotland, from incorporation and share structure to directors' duties and shareholder remedies.
Commercial Contracts
The agreements a trading business runs on, drafted, negotiated and reviewed under Scots law and not adapted from an English precedent.
Business Disputes & Litigation
Commercial disputes brought and defended in the Scottish courts, with a candid view of cost and recovery given at the outset.
Commercial Property
Acquisitions, disposals and leases of commercial property in Scotland, where the conveyancing, the tax and the tenant's position are all distinctly Scottish.
Employment Law for Businesses
Advice for employers: contracts and policies, difficult departures, restructuring, and the defence of tribunal claims in Scotland.
Intellectual Property for SMEs
Establishing what a smaller business owns, recording it properly, and deciding on commercial grounds what to do when someone else is using it.
Company Sales, Purchases & Partnerships
Buying and selling businesses, admitting and retiring partners, and the negotiated documents that determine who carries which risk afterwards.
Insolvency & Restructuring
Advice for directors, lenders and purchasers when a business is under strain, given by reference to Scottish procedure and not to the English equivalent.
International Media Law
Defamation, privacy and reputation, and the contracts behind publishing and broadcast, for publishers and for the individuals written about.
Private Client & Succession
Succession, trusts and the structuring of personal wealth for individuals and families of substantial means, generally those whose companies the firm already advises.
The firm in figures
- The year the firm was founded
- 1987The year the firm was founded
- Partners
- 5Partners
- Practice areas
- 10Practice areas
- Served from one office since 1987
- GlasgowServed from one office since 1987
Notes on Scots commercial law.
Occasional writing on the questions Scottish businesses ask us most often, written for the person who has to take the decision.
- Employment
Employing in Scotland: essentials for small businesses
Employment law is reserved, so the rights are United Kingdom rights. The tribunals, the appeal route and a good deal of the practical advice are Scottish. What a small employer needs to have in place.
4 min read - Commercial property
Commercial leasing in Scotland: key considerations for occupiers
A Scottish commercial tenant has no statutory right to renew, a lease that may continue by accident, and a tax return falling due years after entry. What to check before signing.
4 min read - Commercial contracts
Drafting commercial contracts in Scotland: what SMEs should watch for
Most contracts in use by Scottish businesses were drafted for a different legal system. This piece sets out what actually differs, and which of those differences is likely to cost money.
4 min read
Speak to a partner.
A first conversation is without charge and commits you to nothing. If you describe the position, we will tell you whether it is something the firm can help with, and what it is likely to involve.