Morton Fraser, the Edinburgh-based law firm, has published annual accounts showing a 17 per cent rise in net profit to £6.4million. Turnover was up by eight per cent to £18.1m. The members’ report, signed off by chief executive Chris Harte, says: “This reflects a number of significant new client wins and a number of successful lateral hires. We’re also pleased to have ended the year with a £1.1m cash balance making us well-placed to implement our investment plans over the medium to long term.” Net funds almost doubled from £592,123 a year earlier.
The report shows operating profit rose from £5.34m to £6.26m, and total members’ interests climbed from £5.76m to £6.88m. Payments to its 44 partners rose from £5.47m to £6.42m, an average of £145,922 per member, a rise from £130,185. The remuneration of the highest-paid member rose from £199,905 to £228,007. Total employee numbers rose from 224 to 228.
The firm’s clients include Diageo, Royal Mail, Ministry of Defence, Transport Scotland, Tesco, and Scottish Canals. It prides itself on promoting flexible working, which has contributed to achieving a high one-third ratio of female partners.
This week neighbouring firm Simpson & Marwick, which also has 45 partners but a turnover of £28m, agreed a merger with global law firm Clyde & Co. Mr Harte told The Herald in a recent interview the firm “would like to have a bash at continuing under our own steam over the medium-term...and being in control of our destiny”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here