Six key cases behind Burness Paull’s £93.5m turnover this year

One of Scotland’s leading commercial law firms has posted strong results after a year which included work for Dobbies and the Scottish Football Association.

Burness Paull, which employs 700 people including 95 partners and serves clients from offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, has published its annual financial performance.

Turnover for the year was £93.5m (against £60.1m 2023/24, albeit over a different reporting period) and profit was £35.9m (against £24.3m in 2023/24, again over a different reporting period).

A spokesperson for the firm confirmed 2023/24 was a shortened eight-month reporting period after the firm decided to change its year-end following HMRC’s basis period reforms and to align with market norms.

These profit and turnover figures are, on an annualised basis, around £36.5m and £90.2m respectively.

Burness Paull also recently appointed Noel Jordan as the firm’s first chief operating officer as well as making a series of lateral partner hires and promotions.

What Burness Paull’s leadership has said

Peter Lawson, chair at Burness Paull, said: “A solid year of trading saw growth across all key practice areas, with our corporate M&A, energy, banking and funds, disputes, employment, cyber, and restructuring and insolvency teams performing particularly well.

“This is testament to the hard work of everyone right across the firm and we thank them for their commitment to ensuring our clients receive the highest quality advice."

“When Mark took over as managing partner, we initiated the most rigorous business planning exercise we have ever undertaken as a firm. The result was a refined three-year strategy beginning the 2025/26 financial year that, combined with the investments we have made in our people and infrastructure, offers us a clear roadmap for sustainable, profitable growth over the long term.

“We are already seeing the benefits of the new strategy through a strong start to the current financial year, which has seen us win instructions from across Scotland, the UK and internationally.

“It remains a dynamic business environment characterised by increased levels of investor confidence and transactional activity due to falling interest rates, paired with caution around cost pressures and volatility in global trade policy. We are grateful for the trust our clients place in us to help them make business-critical decisions and further their ambitions in this evolving commercial landscape.”

Key cases in Burness Paull’s year

• AIM-listed i3 Energy on its takeover by Gran Tierra Energy in a deal valued at £174m;
• Dobbies Garden Centres on Scotland’s first contentious restructuring plan;
• the Spence family on the sale of Aberdeen’s Marcliffe Hotel to Balmoral Group;
• Springfield Properties in relation to its partnership with Barratt to deliver a new village settlement of 3,000 homes at Durieshill on the outskirts of Stirling;
• the Scottish Football Association on the sale of UK and international broadcasting rights; and
• On the financing of the 1.1-gigawatt Inch Cape offshore wind farm and the 81-megawatt Pencloe onshore wind project.