Aberdeins launches with ambitions to disrupt
A technology-driven professional services group is being launched in Scotland with a promise to "disrupt" the Scottish legal scene.
While the core of Aberdeins' offering will be legal practice, managing director Rob Aberdein says it is geared up for rapid expansion by creating and acquiring businesses in professional services areas, including estate agency, property letting, accountancy and financial services.
He aims to use technology developments and innovations to change delivery of legal and other professional services, to better support private clients, lenders and businesses. The firm will utilise app-based technologies to allow clients to deal with lawyers and other professional services, to access their documents and case files and to track real time progress with the likes of property purchases.
Mr Aberdein oversaw significant growth at Aberdein Considine before becoming the youngest ever equity partner at English practice Walker Morris.
The Aberdeins board will be led by chairman Tom Barrie, the former managing director and owner of Currie European, and include other experienced figures from Scotland’s business community.
With 10 staff and offices in Renfield Street, Glasgow and Rutland Square, Edinburgh, the firm intends rapid expansion, driven by planned acquisition of well established but underinvested legal firms.
It will focus on conveyancing, wills and executries, powers of attorney, litigation, debt recovery, family law and accessible corporate law for SMEs. The initial financial target is turnover of £10m by the end of 2022.
Mr Aberdein claimed: "The Aberdeins name will become an umbrella for a wide range of professional services, done differently. At its core will be legal services, but we are not just launching a law firm, we are about to deliver the biggest shakeup to the Scottish legal scene in decades.
"The sector is awash in traditional firms that are top-heavy with partners whose main focus is on maintaining their income, while the work is often delivered by overworked junior staff. A generation of young lawyers no longer find this attractive.
"That’s before you even talk about the clients, who feel almost constant resentment at the perceived arrogance, lack of responsiveness and value for money they get from their legal firms. Many sectors of the profession have an image problem.
"Make no mistake, our intention is to be disruptive and we know that won’t make us popular with everyone. But this is long overdue. Others who promised change have ended up turning into exactly the kind of firm they set out to displace. That won’t happen with Aberdeins."
He labels the firm as a "mash up" of the challenger, app-based bank, Monzo; of Tesla the electric car company headed by billionaire Elon Musk; and of Harvey Specter, the charismatic central character in legal drama, Suits.
While launch plans were well advanced before the pandemic, he says it accelerated use of technology for older people, strengthening the launch case. He adds: "There used to be a difference between what someone of mature years would expect and what someone younger would want. Pretty much anyone over the age of 40 has bridged any digital gap there might have been, thanks to the pandemic."