Duncan A. Fairlie

Duncan leads the firm's commercial property practice, and with it the work the firm does on secured lending and on companies in financial difficulty. The two sit together more naturally than they may appear to, since a great deal of Scottish restructuring turns on what is secured over what, and on whether the security was constituted and registered correctly in the first place.

The property work covers acquisitions and disposals of commercial premises, leases from both the landlord's and the occupier's side, rent review, dilapidations, servitudes and title conditions, development sites, and the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax obligations that attach to Scottish commercial leases and are frequently overlooked once a transaction has completed.

On the insolvency side Duncan advises directors approaching the point at which their duties change, lenders considering enforcement, and purchasers buying a business or an asset out of a formal process. The firm does not accept appointments as insolvency practitioners, and the advice given is legal advice.

Duncan takes a particular interest in the use of English-law lease styles for Scottish property, and in the problems that follow from it.