Thorntons posts double digit growth following acquisitions

Legal firm Thorntons has recorded strong financial results for 2017-18, reporting a 13.1% per cent increase in turnover to £26.9m, while profits rose by 14.6%, in the year to 31 May 2018.

Dundee-headquartered Thorntons, which now has 53 partners and 445 staff, has undergone an extended period of significant investment with a series of strategic mergers across Scotland since 2014 as part of a five year strategy, resulting in a network of 13 offices covering Dundee, Edinburgh, Fife, Angus and Perth. The firm acquired Pagan Osborne from administration in September 2017, and last year moved its Edinburgh office to new premises at Haymarket.

A number of awards and nominations during the year included Law Firm of the Year finalist in the Scott + Co Legal Awards and Commended Law Firm of the Year in The Lawyer Awards.

The firm has also recently invested in a new commercial brand campaign to continue to increase awareness of Thorntons and its specialisms, with scheduled rollout in mid-January 2019.

It said that continued investments in technology, processes and training had assisted it in refining its systems to allow lawyers to concentrate on clients and service delivery.

Managing partner Craig Nicol commented: “Our latest financial results represent our commitment to long term investment with a clear strategy for growth across the business. Pagan Osborne was certainly a significant acquisition and we have made considerable headway in the transition for colleagues and clients into our business.

“We view training and people development as key to achieving our goals and with continued investment we’ve grown the headcount across our offices by 10% in the past 12 months.

“We remain committed to constantly looking to improve our client service and provide our clients across all our locations with a full service offering. Our business levels remain strong amid continued uncertainty in some of our markets. We are, of course, mindful of Brexit repercussions but we are confident that we have a stable platform and income mix from which to sustain our growth.”