CMS promotes 34 staff across Scotland

The law firm CMS has announced 34 new promotions across its three Scottish offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. The promotions include Edinburgh-based Joanna Waddell, the firm’s sustainability lead for Scotland, who progresses to the senior position of Of Counsel.

Ms Waddell joined the firm in 2008. She advises clients on a wide range of environmental legal matters including regulatory compliance, enforcement actions and prosecutions, contaminated land issues, nature conservation and renewable energy projects.

Meanwhile, Glasgow-based lawyers Louise Brymer, Alastair McNaughton and Calum McSporran along with their Edinburgh colleagues Amina Mahmood, Kayleigh Purves and Laura Sefton, and Cameron Milne, from CMS’s Aberdeen office, are all promoted to Senior Associate level. An additional 11 CMS colleagues have also progressed to Mid Level Associate roles.

There were further promotions across Scotland, including new Senior Paralegal and Paralegal roles within the firm's innovative Legal Services Unit, as well as a range of promotions within business services teams which support CMS’s UK business from a Scottish base. 

Regan Brown and Vanessa Liu, two CMS Scotland Scholarship participants who completed the CMS Academy programme earlier this year, have also been offered full traineeships within the firm. Set up in 2012, the Scotland Scholarship programme has helped some of the brightest legal minds progress their career by providing financial and mentoring support as well as paid work experience throughout their studies.

This latest round of promotions follows April’s announcement that three CMS Scotland colleagues – Fiona Henderson, David Dennis and Davinia Cowden – were elevated to partner level.

Allan Wernham, Managing Director of CMS Scotland, said: “It’s great to see so many of our talented colleagues progressing their roles at CMS. These promotions underline our commitment to nurturing and developing our people across Scotland and recognising their dedication, hard work and commitment to our clients.

“I’m also delighted to see Regan and Vanessa, two participants in the CMS Scotland Scholarship programme, being offered traineeships within the firm. We are proud of the positive impact of this programme which has helped emerging legal talent attend some of the UK’s most prestigious universities and secure training contracts at some of the world’s largest law firms, including CMS.”