Challenger law firm on hiring drive after pushing into Edinburgh and Glasgow

Challenger law firm Gunnercooke has embarked on a hiring drive after pushing into the Scottish marketplace.

The launch into Edinburgh and Glasgow follows new operations in Birmingham and Berlin, Germany in the last six months.

Simon Etchells has been unveiled as the firm’s first appointment at its new Scottish practice, Gunnercooke SCO LLP. The property partner has joined from Dentons in Glasgow with 30 years’ experience in high value investment and development structures.

Gunnercooke was founded in 2010 with an ambition to change the way legal services are delivered. It claims to be the first fee share model firm to open offices in Scotland, though a couple of others, including Inksters, are already operating in the marketplace using this model.

The firm has already made its first Scottish recruit - real estate partner Simon Etchells, who has joined from Dentons in Glasgow (pictured) with 30 years’ experience in high value investment and development structures.

Over the last decade the firm has signed clients including Johnson Matthey, BAE Systems, Jet2 and Santander. Its model sees its lawyers working remotely, as well as having access to office bases and support teams across the UK.

The new offices are based in Edinburgh’s WeWork on George Street and the Garment Factory on Montrose Street in Glasgow.

Etchells said: “I’m hugely looking forward to advancing the Gunnercooke brand in Scotland and welcoming talented Scottish lawyers to the team.

“This is a fantastic addition to the Scottish market, and I am confident that the firm’s modern business model will be attractive to great lawyers and clients alike.”

The firm’s co-founder, Sarah Goulbourne, added: “We plan on recruiting 60 new partners this year and hope many of these will be based in Scotland. There is a fantastic pool of talent across the country who are yet to find an opportunity to work in a new law firm model such as ours within Scotland.

“We help lawyers to become businesspeople as well as lawyers, so we’d welcome anyone who has the ambition to set up their own practice to get in touch.”

The business describes itself as a full-service commercial professional services firm, “founded to change the way legal services are delivered to clients and how lawyers balance their lives”. Its “innovative” model sees partners with a minimum 10,000 hours practicing experience becoming trusted advisers to their clients.

Offices include Manchester, London, Birmingham, Leeds and the first overseas base, in Berlin, which opened earlier this year.

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