Leading law firm announces two new appointments from rival firm

A SCOTTISH legal firm has swooped to poach two of the country’s top talents from under the noses of a rival.

A deal had previously been struck in which Morton Fraser had agreed to take on Addleshaw Goddard’s ten-strong Scottish Private Client team.

Private Client experts Euan Fleming and Joe Davies have decided to break ranks after being given an opportunity at the “most ambitious law firm in Scotland.”

Gilson Gray has bucked trends since it was founded in 2014 to cherry-pick the most talented people to join its team. Appointing new top talent to Firm was once considered to be a coup and now it is considered the norm for Gilson Gray.

It’s an approach which has seen the firm win numerous accolades, including repeatedly Law Firm of the Year and Managing Partner of the Year, and deliver market leading growth. The business is now one of the leading law firms in the country after only four full years of operation and enjoys a decidedly different culture from traditional legal practices.

Euan Fleming, who joins as Partner and Head of the Private Client team said: “I am incredibly happy to be joining, arguably, the most ambitious law firm in Scotland. Certainly the Firm’s growth and results speak for themselves.

“Heading up the Private Client department at Gilson Gray is an amazing and exciting opportunity.

“It is clear that the firm has a positive ethos of placing its talented pool of staff at the core of its business, ultimately for client interest, and I very much look forward to help in nurturing that ethos whilst developing a market leading Private Client proposition.”

Euan brings with him 12 years’ experience – having qualified as a solicitor in 2006 – and a proven track record of helping clients on a range of matters from asset protecting to succession and tax planning.

Joe Davies also joins as a Senior Solicitor. Both Joe and Euan were key members of the team previously reported to be moving from Addelshaw Goddard to Morton Fraser. It now transpires that few of the originally advised number have chosen to see the deal through in what will be a blow to the management teams involved, who appear to have misread the desires of core personnel.

Glen Gilson, Managing Partner of Gilson Gray, said: “We’ve always shown a strong commitment to hiring the very best talent.

“Euan and Joe are forward thinking and technically excellent lawyers who join some of the best private client talent in Scotland. They join a team boasting personnel such as Dorothy Kellas, one of the most respected private client lawyers in the country, Ally Lindsay, the highly experienced and respected Managing Partner of Gilson Gray Financial Management, and many others who truly understand that clients do not want stuck-up advisors that talk in a weird, complex language.

“Our success has been based on providing a service that sees our talented staff go above and beyond for clients. Euan and Joe share the same commitment.”

Gilson Gray’s rapid rise to become one of the country’s most respected law firms has been underpinned by taking a fresh approach to business, unburdened by the structure and years of tradition associated with many of the largest legal entities.

Gilson added: “Our corporate clients need technical legal advice but also demand commercial acumen and the ability to properly understand their wider objectives.

“We offer a different culture to the traditional offering, a feel more akin to a cross between private equity and law, that we believe entrepreneurs, executives and business owners prefer.

“Our business is not perfect. For example our residential conveyancing arm which now leads the market in growth and scale, has previously suffered growing pains.

“However, we know what we are doing and have client service forefront in all we do. Our clients are fantastic and their support hugely appreciated. We expect to lead this sector as the best law firm in Scotland.”

Bucking industry trends of cutbacks and mergers with its fresh and dynamic approach, Gilson Gray has quadrupled in scale since its launch in May 2014 making it one of the most successful law firms in sector history.

The irony of Gilson poaching such talent will not be lost on Addelshaw Goddard.

As a then board member, Gilson famously resigned in 2013 from the firm, at that time called HBJ Gateley, amid disagreements on strategic direction, matters that included the firm’s vulnerability to English take-over and misfit between its corporate and private client operations.

It would seem that Gilson was proven right, with English giant Addelshaws consuming HBJ Gateley last year, and with the fracturing and ultimate disappearance of what was once, when under Gilson’s leadership, one of the leading private client operations in the sector.

Gilson added: “Morton Fraser and Addelshaws are excellent firms. We wish them all the best. Our focus is not on other firms but our clients and our people.”

Gilson Gray picked up two awards at the 2017 Law Awards of Scotland adding to a host of other accolades, including six awards at the ACQ5 legal awards – the third year in a row that Gilson Gray has seen success – including Law Firm of the Year, Managing Partner of the Year and Insolvency Lawyer of the Year, all for the second time in three years. The Firm also won Corporate Firm of the year 2018, following previous recognition as Litigation Firm of the Year.

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