North sea investment deals have helped drive growth in Scotland amid a big jump in annual profits and turnover at law firm Pinsent Masons.
London-based Pinsent said yesterday its global turnover increased by 12% during its 2014/15 trading year, to £362.2million.
Profits per equity partner soared to £538,000, from £405,000 previously.
The results follow a year of significant expansion at the firm, which in March announced plans to open offices in Sydney and Melbourne.
Partner numbers for the business, which has Scottish offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have reached more than 400.
Pinsent recently announced the hire of Bruce McKinnon, former managing partner of Aberdeen-based McKinnons, to head up its litigation practice in the Granite City.
Aberdeen office head Roger Connon said: “Our growth in Scotland has been driven by some fairly chunky deals for investment in and around the North Sea, a number of major commercial property transactions, and continued roles on some of the country’s largest infrastructure projects – not least among which is the Aberdeen West Peripheral Bypass.”
“It has been a positive year but we are not complacent about the year ahead.
“Like industry, we have adopted the mantra of innovation and efficiency to deliver greater cost certainty.”
He added: “We’re also continuing to build our capability across the oil and gas sector globally.
“We recently appointed one of the market’s stand-out offshore specialists in the shape of Bruce Craig, and have added sector experts to our team in London and Dubai.
“Through our offices in Asia, Europe and the Middle East we’re actively helping our clients pursue cross-border growth strategies across the world’s major energy hubs.”
Pinsent, which employs more than 1,500 lawyers and in excess of 2,500 people in total, said it acted on deals worth over £5billion in Scotland during FY14/15 and now had 345 fee-earning lawyers in its three offices north of the border.
Managing partner John Cleland added: “We’ve made great progress towards our vision of becoming an international leader in the global sectors in which we operate, and these results position us well to move further and faster in that direction.”
Pinsent has eight offices in the UK, four in the Asia Pacific region, two in the Persian Gulf and one each in France, Germany, Turkey and the Falklands.
Last year, the firm advised private-equity investor Blue Water Energy (BWE) on the £325million launch of UK North Sea oil and gas explorer Siccar Point.
Business for Pinsent in 2015 includes it advising BWE on a £163million investment in another new North Sea explorer, Wellesley Petroleum.