Scottish law firm Burness Paull has named a new managing partner.
Mark Ellis, who returned to the firm as a partner in 2008 after spending five years in London and specialises in private equity transactions and mergers and acquisitions, will work alongside Peter Lawson, who will continue as chair.
Burness Paull said: “Assuming the role from today, Ellis will continue to build on the successful growth strategy led by Lawson - who has been re-elected for a third term as chair - and outgoing managing partner Tamar Tammes, which has seen both fee income and profit grow by more than 50% since 2018.”
Ms Tammes is taking up the role of head of international growth at Burness Paull.
Read more
- Scotch whisky distiller hikes profits in 'volatile' times
- Scottish law firm boosts profits, pays all staff bonus, says nothing 'creaking'
Mr Ellis trained with what was at the time Burness, before spending five years in London with City firms Hogan Lovells and Travers Smith.
The Scottish law firm said: “Ellis brings considerable management experience to the role having led Burness Paull’s corporate finance team for the last six years. He also previously sat as an elected member of the firm’s governance and strategy board.”
Burness Paull noted its total headcount now exceeds 700, including 90 partners, highlighting its investment in strengthening core practice areas and diversification “into new ones, such as cyber security, life sciences, immigration, rural business, and family law”.
Read more
- Scottish house price rise forecast doubled but grave warning on rented sector
- Return of peak rail fares in Scotland 'a tax on work'
Mr Lawson said: “Mark has long been a leader within the firm, latterly as head of the corporate finance team. Like Tamar and I, he trained here and has a deep understanding of our independent culture and commitment to our people and clients.
“The revolutionary potential of generative AI, market consolidation, greater competition from non-traditional players, and wider economic volatility mean it is a time of considerable change for the legal industry. We need to recognise the challenges but also be confident about the opportunities and inherent advantages we have as an independent, Scotland-based firm.”
He added: “Mark’s qualities and track record mean he is ideally suited to take on the role of managing partner and I look forward to working with him to deliver our ambitious growth strategy. Our management remits will operate alongside our client work, not least because it’s our focus on clients which will continue to shape our strategy going forward.”
Mr Lawson declared the firm is "enormously grateful to Tamar for her exceptional leadership, energy and commitment over the last six years”.
He added: “During her time as managing partner, the firm has not only delivered strong financial growth but also made huge strides as we seek to become an ever-more inclusive employer and responsible business. We look forward to continuing to benefit from Tamar’s expertise and experience as she takes on the position of head of international growth.”
Mr Ellis said: “It’s an honour to be trusted by colleagues with the role of managing partner. I have spent the overwhelming majority of my career at Burness Paull and I care passionately about our firm, our people, and the quality of service we deliver for our clients.
“Independent law firms across the world continue to lead the market and my ambition is to ensure Burness Paull retains and enhances this standing. We have remarkable talent right across our firm and together we will continue to strengthen our offering and grow our business - building on our success to date.”
Burness Paull announced a further two senior appointments which it said would "play a key role in supporting the firm’s management".
Lindsay Wallace, previously general counsel partner with responsibility for the firm’s governance and regulatory obligations, becomes head of sustainability.
Burness Paull said that she would, in this newly created role, lead the delivery of the firm’s "wide-ranging" environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy as it "progresses towards" its responsible business and sustainability targets, "including net zero emissions by 2050 and near-term targets based on the Science Based Targets Initiative".
Ms Wallace will be succeeded as general counsel partner by Jill Moore. The firm noted Ms Moore has spent her entire career with Burness Paull, initially as a banking and finance lawyer before moving into the general counsel team where she spent six years as senior counsel for risk and data protection officer.
Burness Paull in July unveiled underlying advances in turnover and profits, with Mr Lawson declaring all parts of its business were performing well with none “creaking”.
It said turnover for its shortened, eight-month accounting period to March 31 was £60.1 million and profit was £24.3m. The firm noted it had decided to change its year-end to “align with market norms”. It calculated that, on the most “straightforward” method of adjusting the results for the abbreviated accounting period to compare them with the prior year, profit was up 3% and turnover was 8% higher.
The law firm highlighted a bonus being paid to all staff on the back of the results.
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