One of Scotland's leading law firms is growing its overseas businesses by helping companies in eastern Europe gain a foothold in the UK, while advising Scottish businesses looking to expand their operations abroad.

The Romanian digital textbook company Learn Forward is just the latest company to establish a presence in the UK after receiving advice from the Glasgow-based solicitors' firm Harper Macleod.

According to David Kaye, a partner at the firm who specialises in business law and franchising, eastern European companies wanting to expand into the UK market are often put off by the high cost of using London-based lawyers, notorious for charging among the highest professional fees in the world.

Concentrating on Romania and the Baltic States, Harper Macleod has successfully persuaded clients that by using a Scottish firm they can receive the advice they need to set up their businesses at rates and at rates closer to those they habitually pay in their own countries.

For the last 18 months Kaye has been making regular business trips to Bucharest and the Baltic capitals, flying the flag for Scotland's legal expertise and drumming up more business for Harper Macleod, particularly in the lucrative field of public private partnerships.

"At the moment the main focus is on Romania and the Baltic States - particularly Latvia and Lithuania - but we are also looking at the possibility of working in other European countries," he said.

"We try to get over there at least once a quarter, but some of the meetings can be arranged through conference calls. It is still a work in progress but in recent months it has started to become a significant piece of work for us.

"We've been building networks with businesses and with indigenous law firms in these countries and many of them are very pleased that a Scottish firm has shown the initiative to go out there on repeated visits," he said.

"It has taken a lot of hard work but now the business is starting to come through and it is evolving into a real success story."

Kaye and his colleagues have used these trips - many of them supported by the Cormack Consultancy Group, the Edinburgh-based trade facilitation firm - to build contacts with enterprise networks in Romania and the Baltic States and several Harper Macleod partners have, as a result, been invited to speak at trade conferences.

"We've met with many university spin-outs and some established businesses, and we are now talking to a number of these about moving into the UK.

"Many in the UK aren't fully aware of how far these countries have come, in a business sense, in recent years. Bucharest, for example, is an increasingly modern city and there are a lot of switched on businesses there, with a multi-lingual, talented workforce."

"Franchising is one area where we have huge experience and contacts across Europe who can facilitate this type of expansion. Likewise, we've been able to introduce Scottish and UK brands to these countries."

As a result of developing business relationships with law firms in those countries, lawyers from a major Romanian firm have recently travelled to Scotland to attend training from Harper Macleod in franchising.