Turnover up, profit slightly down at Burness Paull

Burness Paull has reported 6% revenue growth, but a slight fall in profit, for its financial year ended 31 July 2023.

Annual turnover rose from £78.6m to £83.2m, while profits slipped from £35.7m to £35.5m.

The firm said it had "continued to invest in support of its long-term strategic plan to strengthen and extend services, to deliver exceptional client outcomes, and to ensure employees are competitively remunerated against a backdrop of inflation".

Revenue "continued to be underpinned" by corporate finance, real estate, banking and funds, dispute resolution and employment, though the firm was also seeing benefits from its diversification strategy into areas such as technology, restructuring and insolvency, public law, financial services regulation, cyber and data security, family, private client, and immigration.

The year saw five lateral partner hires, and moves to state-of-the-art offices in Glasgow and Aberdeen, supporting Burness Paull’s commitment to achieve net zero by 2030.

Including four internal partner promotions effective from the new financial year from 1 August 2023, the number of partners at Burness Paull now stands at 89 and total headcount across its offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen at more than 670.

Building on existing initiatives across LGBT+, race, social and gender equality, during the year the firm partnered with neurodiversity charity Salvesen Mindroom Centre and signed up to the Neuroinclusion at Work programme, the first project of its kind in Scotland. Through the Burness Paull Foundation it also maintained community links, including its longstanding partnership with Street Soccer Scotland that saw support for Team Scotland at the Homeless World Cup in Sacramento.

Peter Lawson, chair at Burness Paull, commented: "This is a positive set of results, which is testament to the hard work of our people and their commitment to ensuring the best possible outcomes for our clients in a complex and changing landscape.

"To increase turnover and largely maintain profitability in the context of a quieter property and M&A market is a good outcome."

He added: "Looking ahead, there is little doubt that challenges remain for the business community. However, we are well placed to help our clients navigate this environment.

"We see opportunities in a range of sectors, not least the growing renewables industry which plays to many of our strengths in areas such as project finance and development, planning, construction, regulatory issues, commercial contracts, and sale and purchase agreements."