Law firm Gillespie Macandrew books profit rise despite 'challenging conditions across the sector'

Scottish legal firm Gillespie Macandrew has increased its annual profits despite a fall in turnover resulting from the pandemic.

Gillespie Macandrew chief executive Robert Graham-Campbell: 'We have delivered another set of strong financial results.' Picture: Simon Williams

The firm said the initial lockdown of 2020 aligned almost exactly with the beginning of its financial year. Revenue for the year ending 28 February 2021 amounted to £13.5 million, down from £14.4m a year earlier.

Bosses said business had been adversely affected in the initial few months of lockdown, particularly in relation to property and court-related work, where external factors meant that these markets failed to function normally. However, overall business levels for the second half of the financial year returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“Mitigating actions” taken during the initial period of lockdown, coupled with the stronger trading environment experienced in the latter part of the year, resulted in profits of £3.9m before members’ remuneration, up from £3.5m.

Partners in Gillespie Macandrew, which has offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth, donate 1 per cent of their pre-tax profits to charity every year, with the total donated over the past five years standing at more than £130,000.

Chief executive Robert Graham-Campbell said: “We have delivered another set of strong financial results despite challenging conditions across the sector and for our clients, especially in the initial few months of lockdown.

“I am immensely proud of our team and how quickly we adapted to home-working while continuing to deliver high quality legal services to our clients.

“The decisive mitigating actions we took early in the year enabled us to maintain the firm’s resources, making us well-placed to meet the high levels of business activity now being experienced.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription: www.scotsman.com/subscriptions