Partners jump ship as Scots law firm seeks redundancies
By Ian Fraser
The Herald
June 5th, 2008
Two partners in law firm McGrigors have left to join its larger English rival Eversheds, as the Scottish-based firm seeks to make nine people redundant from its London office as a direct result of the commercial property market slowdown.
Colin Gray, former managing partner of McGrigors, and its head of real estate finance, Colin McKay, are joining the London office of the UK national firm Eversheds.
Gray led McGrigors for two four-year terms, initially as chief operating officer of KPMG legal offshoot KLegal, then as managing partner once McGrigors alliance with KPMG was dissolved. He becomes a London-based corporate partner with Eversheds, specialising in M&A. McKay joins Evershed’s real estate finance team.
While he was McGrigors’ managing partner, Gray was based in the firm’s London office. However the management role went to Richard Masters on April 1, and he has since been a Glasgow-based corporate partner.
McGrigors last month also lost corporate partner David Mandell to the London office of US law firm Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that McGrigors wants to cull about nine jobs from its London office, which with 126 fee earners and turnover of some £22m is the largest of any Scottish law firm.
“This is a direct result of market conditions,” said Masters. He said the firm’s other offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Manchester and Belfast would be unaffected. McGrigors is engaged in a consultation expected to lead to four fee earners and three secretaries in its London-based property team and a further two secretaries in its London-based banking department losing their jobs.
Michael Murphy, managing partner at Glasgow headquartered MacRoberts, warned that, given the current market conditions, Scottish law firms that have invested heavily in building up a London presence in recent years may find life difficult.
“As the London market slows I suspect it’ll become more difficult for them to find work down there,” said Murphy. “Their London offices have failed to make the impact they hoped and are much less well recognised as brands than SJ Berwin or Ashurst.”
Murphy said that firms that have focused on the Scottish market – where the fall-out from the credit crunch is currently less severe – will be less likely to need to make redundancies.
Last year there was repeated speculation that McGrigors and Eversheds were contemplating a full merger, although this was denied by both firms.
Short URL: https://www.ianfraser.org/?p=538
Posted by Ian Fraser
on Jun 5 2008. Filed under Article Library, Latest Articles.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry