When Alasdair Cummings describes Lindsays’ move this month to new offices in 100 Queen Street Glasgow, it is, he says the relocation of “an award-winning firm to an award-winning building.” The managing partner of the legal firm, which has a significant presence in three Scottish cities - Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, adds: “It will be a great place to develop our team in Glasgow. We’re very excited about it because it opens a new chapter for us.”
When the firm first established a presence in the city a decade ago it was in serviced accommodation, then to premises in Royal Bank Place. Lindsays has now outgrown this office, having augmented its team from five partners and 30 staff to 11 partners and 46 staff. This growth underlines Lindsays’ success during a period when the business climate has been less than kind to other firms.
Cummings concurs: “The past few years have been challenging ones for the legal and professional services sector.”
“We want to remain an independent Scottish firm, controlled and managed in Scotland with a wide network of clients across our Scottish offices. We don’t have any aspirations to head south of the border or indeed tie up with an English firm. There are relatively few substantial legal firms like that in the Scottish market today but we are confident that our way forward is the right one for Lindsays,” says Cummings.
Ian Beattie, the firm’s chief operating officer points out that during the demanding past decade Lindsays has actually grown substantially, expanding its presence in Dundee by merging with RSB Macdonald in 2015, following a tie-up in 2012 with Shield & Kyd. That same year the firm joined forces with property and private client firm MacLachlan & MacKenzie in Edinburgh.
“We also recently welcomed two new partners as a result of the acquisition of Brodies’ personal injury business, building on the existing reputation of our dispute resolution and litigation group.”
This full service firm, Cummings adds, prides itself on its expertise in the SME marketplace: “We see the SME market as our sweet spot, which I think ties in with the nature of the firm itself. About 50 per cent of our turnover relates to corporate and business activity and 50 per cent around individuals, many of whom are in business, whether it’s through being directors, shareholders, partners and so on. So the SME sector is in the DNA of our firm.”
This approach, says Beattie, also ties in with Lindsays’ expertise in the charities sector which complements the SME-type model. “They have many of the same needs as small businesses, particularly in areas such as property and employment”, he says.
Cummings confirms that the firm’s intention is to “continue doing what we do well. When you bring in good people good things tend to happen and we have a culture that is collegiate in nature and believe that success breeds success.”
The firm has just undertaken a strategic review for the next three years and Beattie says that while there are no plans to open new offices, the aim is steady organic growth but where there are opportunities it will take them.
Lindsays can trace its origins to 1815 when John MacKenzie Lindsay and his cousin Frederick Fothringham began practising in Mr Fothringham’s mother’s house on George Street in Edinburgh.
Cummings describes Lindsays as “a proudly independent, full service firm, managed and run out of Scotland. We aim to provide an excellent level of service and to be a firm that people want to work for, and are happy to stay with”.
It’s an ambition that the move to Queen Street will reinforce.