Alan McLaren, a Partner specialising in advising family businesses is involved in a collaboration project with the Scottish Family Business Association (SFBA) and the Law Society of Scotland to look at the distinctive legal services required by family-run businesses.
Seven in ten Scottish companies describe themselves as family businesses and family firms employ 50 per cent of Scotland's private sector workforce.
Yet such firms are often "invisible" because companies are always identified by size or the type of their business and not if they are based on a family unit, said Martin Stepek, SFBA.
Alan McLaren commented: "Many people are shocked by the scale of family business and can't quite get their head around its values."
The project aims to identify the level of awareness among lawyers of the family business sector and its specific needs. It will then provide tailored training to Law Society members to enable them to fulfil these needs, with the aim of building up a "stable and sustainable customer base to survive the recession, and ‘recession proof’ themselves in the future".
Alan added: "There is without doubt a lack of understanding among lawyers about the specific needs of the family business sector. They are run for profit but they are not necessarily solely for-profit organisations.
“That's a huge issue to get your head around; the whole concept of family first is quite foreign to lots of professionals – not just lawyers, but also accountants, surveyors, insurers and stockbrokers.
"One of the big issues family businesses have is succession. The reality is that the business will end or have a new manager – irrespective of what the patriarch might think.
“You really have to understand a family business to be able to give good advice and help. What are the firm's values, what are the matters of the heart? If you understand them, you can help them to help themselves."
Martin Stepek said: "As the most prevalent type of business in Scotland, family firms present a huge market opportunity for the legal sector.
“But they have very specific needs and you have to get to know the whole family as a client – the patriarch who might not be able to let go, the matriarchal figure who is often known as the chief emotional officer, and the siblings and in-laws who can have very different ideas about where the business should go.
“Better understanding between business clients, their solicitors and other advisers will help to reduce this difficulty and enable the sector to flourish."
The project began with a consultation period, which ended in January, followed by discussions in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee where solicitors and family business representatives met to plan the most effective training for solicitors advising family-run businesses. The training will be provided at short breakfast seminars which started in Edinburgh on May 25, with subsequent events in Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow.
In August and September four more workshop/networking events will take place across Scotland, while an international conference is planned for October.
For further information please visit the Scottish Family Business Association website at www.sfba.co.uk .
