Scotland Growth

Shakespeare Martineau has expanded its footprint in Edinburgh after taking additional space to accommodate its growing team

The law firm, which has an established heritage across England, launched in Glasgow in 2020 with the appointment of dual-qualified real estate partner Amal Kaur. Since then, the firm has laid Scottish roots within a permanent space in Queen Street, Edinburgh, and taken on a further nine legal professionals.

Now a team of 10, the Scottish practice grew in revenue by 142% in the last financial year, and local service lines now include corporate, banking, litigation, commercial and data protection, and real estate. The firm is also the only Scottish practice to be part of Multilaw, a global network of law firms.

Head of the Scottish practice Amal Kaur said: “We originally set up the practice in response to growing client demand and it’s grown 10-fold because our clients benefit from on-the-ground experts, who are backed by a 1,200-strong team of professionals across 10 other hubs in the UK.

“Our dual-qualified team members are proving incredibly useful to clients working both North and South the border, and for those wanting to expand across countries; even we were surprised by how quickly our client base grew when we first set up.”

Recent appointments include dispute resolution partner Fiona Pask, triple-qualified commercial and corporate partner Trevor Fenton, dual-qualified real estate legal director Nicky Grant, and Grant Docherty to lead the firm’s banking practice in Scotland. The firm also recently welcomed commercial property and real estate finance solicitor Myeda Aarif, and in 2022, welcomed its first Scottish trainee.

The firm became a B-Corporation in 2023 and was named a best law firm to work for in 2022.

Grant said: “Despite the pandemic and cost-of-doing business crisis, we are growing, and we are continually open to conversations with lateral hires who want to work with a firm that’s genuinely different. We’re invested in Edinburgh and Scotland and can service clients nationally. It’s a really exciting time to be part of such a rapidly-growing team.”