Ledingham Chalmers has acquired Inverness-based legal practice Anderson Shaw & Gilbert (ASG) as it seeks to double its revenue to £25 million by 2025.
The deal creates a business with around £14m in annual turnover and a headcount of 196, including 29 partners. All 19 ASG personnel will join Aberdeen-based Ledingham Chalmers.
“This deal, bringing ASG’s extremely well-respected commercial, corporate and private client expertise to our firm, is the latest part of our commitment to actively pursue acquisition and merger opportunities across Scotland — including in the central belt — that add measurable value to clients," managing partner Jennifer Young said.
“Locally, it’s a milestone in the evolution of our Inverness office where our offering has grown over the last couple of years beyond what remains a strong public sector client base, and specialised business law practice, to the full-service model that has served us so well in Aberdeen.”
ASG’s commercial property, corporate, rural, and private client teams will trade under the Ledingham Chalmers brand with Joe Duncan joining as commercial property partner.
Meanwhile, its estate agency practice will retain its name, with Findlay Boyd as conveyancing partner, along with Iain McDonald as director.
This complements the work of Aberdeen-headquartered Ledingham Chalmers Estate Agency which, following the transfer of Simpson & Marwick’s north east estate agency practice in 2019, became one of the city’s largest in terms of number and value of properties sold.
“This is a mutually beneficial deal and gives ASG the opportunity to access a larger team of solicitors providing a broader range of advice in what is an impressive service for clients ranging from first-time buyers looking for a home, to multinationals considering global mergers and acquisitions," Mr Boyd said.
“All clients can expect a seamless transition and we’ve already been in touch with them to let them know what they can expect over the coming days and weeks, and that includes continuing to deal with their usual contacts.”
Ledingham Chalmers works with public sector organisations and individuals, multinational and national companies, as well as high-potential SMEs. The firm is also the Scottish member of Lawyers Associated Worldwide, through which it helps clients access strategic, straightforward support in nearly 200 jurisdictions.
ASG was established in the 1880s and provides legal advice to private individuals and business clients across the north of Scotland.
Its Church Street premises will be home to all estate agency, conveyancing and private client personnel.
Meanwhile, the corporate, rural, litigation and employment law teams will work out of Ledingham Chalmers’ current Kintail House site. The commercial property team will be spread across both offices.
Decline in mortgage approvals bolsters predictions for falling house prices
Mortgage approvals for home buyers fell significantly in September as rising interest rates and cost-of-living concerns eroded demand and weighed on market activity.
Official data from the Bank of England (BoE) put the number of approvals last month at 66,800, down 10 per cent from August’s figure of 74,400 and below the six-month average of 67,200. Economists predict the downward trend will continue.
“All told, we expect house purchase mortgage approvals to average just 55,000 per month in 2023, the least since 2012,” said Gabriella Dickens, senior UK economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Calls for VAT to be slashed as one-third of hospitality firms at risk of failure
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has come under renewed pressure to slash value-added tax to prop up the ailing hospitality industry, after a major survey found more than one-third of businesses are at risk of failure in early 2023.
The cost of doing business crisis was cited by groups representing huge swathes of the hospitality and brewing sectors yesterday as 35 per cent of respondents said they expect to be operating at a loss or unviable by the end of the year.
The survey, conducted by UKHospitality, the British Beer & Pub Association, the British Institute of Innkeeping and Hospitality Ulster, underlined the impact of rampant inflation on consumer confidence, with 77% of operators stating they had seen a decrease in people eating and drinking out, and 85% expecting this to decline further.
Sign up for free: You can now get the briefing sent direct to your email inbox twice-daily, and Business Week for the seven-day round-up on Sunday 👇
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