Scottish law firm Morton Fraser MacRoberts, also known as MFMac, has posted a 30% rise in profit to £19 million in its first year as a merged practice.
This compares to £14.7m based on their independent accounts.
Revenue grew 7% to more than £50m and, as a result of the strong bottom line growth, all staff will share in a profit share pool of £1m.
MFMac has made significant investments in people, infrastructure and technology in the last year. This included £3m in new premises – most notably a flagship office at Haymarket in Edinburgh – as well as upgrades to its Glasgow base to support modern, flexible working. The IT systems have been upgraded to integrate the two businesses.
As a merged firm, MFMac has won several major mandates it may not otherwise have won separately. These include advising the University of Edinburgh across its estates, HR and Commercial operations; supporting Thistle Wind Partners (TWP) in Orkney and Aberdeenshire; and providing specialist legal support to SSE.
Chris Harte, chief executive, said: “The two primary reasons for our merger were to benefit clients and attract the best talent in Scotland. We are ahead of schedule against every benchmark we set, with the firm growing its turnover despite the costs and upheaval associated with merging.
“We can now push forwards on our journey to build a modern firm with the capability, scale and culture to compete at the very top of the legal market in Scotland.”
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