Glasgow and home city office openings for Aberdein Considine

Legal firm Aberdein Considine has announced new office openings in Glasgow and its home city of Aberdeen as it continues its expansion across Scotland.

The firm's second Glasgow office will give it a commercial property presence in the city under the direction of Legal 500-listed Paul Jennings, former head of commercial real estate at Anderson Strathern and before that managing partner of Bell & Scott. It already has a residential property branch in Kilmarnock Road.

In Aberdeen, the practice is opening a new flagship property branch on one side of Union Street and a pension advice centre on the other. It now operates in five Scottish cities, since acquiring the practice a few months ago of Stirling firm Muirhead Buchanan, and has a total of 19 offices across the country.

Managing partner Jacqueline Law said investment underlined the firm’s desire to become one of the biggest in the country.

“Our new Aberdeen property office is second to none and gives us a real high-profile presence in the city”, she commented. “With the changes to pension regulations coming in April, we also felt it was important to make advice easily available on the high street.”

She added: “The arrival of Paul Jennings – with all his commercial property experience – adds a new dimension to what we offer. We opened a legal office in Edinburgh 18 months ago and that was a huge success for us. I fully expect us to repeat that in Glasgow.”

In addition the firm has promoted eight lawyers, and appointed its first chief financial officer.

Chris Comfort, Mairi Kennedy, Douglas Telfer and Sean MacMillan have been promoted to associates, while Samantha Morrice, Kirsty Allan, Vicki Alexander and Nicola Jane Scott have been made senior solicitors.

New CFO John Perry has arrived from accountancy firm Baker Tilly, where he previously led its UK restructuring and recovery commercial finance team.

Officially opening the new Aberdeen offices this morning, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "This has created Aberdeen’s largest property, legal and financial centre in the heart of the city.

“Scotland has a proud and distinguished history in providing traditional values of integrity and fairness in the legal sector and Aberdein Considine is a significant part of that sector as a Top 10 Scottish law firm in terms of both fee earners and turnover."