Scottish law firm Ledingham Chalmers sets goal of doubling turnover to £25m

Ledingham Chalmers, the legal firm with four offices across Scotland, is to invest a six-figure sum over the next 12 months as part of a growth strategy to double up on revenues by 2025.

New figures reveal that for the 2020/2021 financial year, group profit (including subsidiary Ledingham Chalmers Financial) came in at £4 million, compared with £3.6m and £3.5m in the previous two reporting periods.

Group turnover was down slightly, at £12.3m, compared with £12.7m in 2019/2020 and £12.1m in 2018/2019. The firm is aiming to take turnover up to £25m by 2025.

Managing partner Jennifer Young said: “Reading or watching anything over the past 18 months you’d be hard pressed to miss words and phrases like ‘unprecedented’ and ‘year like no other’. That meant the process of making predictions for our business at the start of the pandemic was all-the-more complex.

Ledingham Chalmers managing partner Jennifer Young. Picture: Alastair Robb

“What we could see coming though was the effort and commitment from colleagues across all our offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness and Stirling, which resulted in a strong performance across the board.”

The Edinburgh-headquartered firm has allocated a £150,000 “Covid-19 pot” which has been shared among all those employed by Ledingham Chalmers as at March 31, 2021 - a payment of £1,250 for someone working full-time hours.

Young added: “The pandemic has permanently changed the way we work and support our clients, so we have to adapt quickly and effectively to respond.

“For example, as well as updating our financial management system and processes, we are spending more on our external presence and internal communications.

“This includes our website, a new intranet as well as our virtual conferencing facilities, not least because hybrid working and virtual court hearings, certainly for civil proceedings, are here for the long term.

“Looking to double our revenue to £25m in the next five years is a challenge, but it’s the basis of our growth strategy.”

When it comes to hybrid working, about a quarter (27 per cent) of the firm’s people have agreed arrangements in place.

Young said: “We have always offered colleagues flexible options, but this seemed a natural next step.”

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