Financial results for leading Scottish law firm Gillespie Macandrew confirm the business delivered another strong year overall despite the disruption caused by COVID-19, where the Government-imposed initial lockdown of 2020 aligned almost exactly with the beginning of the firm’s financial year. Revenue for the year ending 28 February 2021 was £13.5m (2020 – £14.4m), having been adversely affected in the initial few months of lockdown, particularly in relation to its property and court-related work, where external factors meant that these markets failed to function normally. From early autumn onwards, overall business levels for the second half of the financial year returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The firm’s mitigating actions taken during the initial months 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 (2020 – £3.5m).
The firm managed to maintain its strong year-end cash position after further significant investment in its IT infrastructure, equipping the firm fully for modern agile and business resilient working practices.
Chief Executive Officer 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 homeworking 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.”
During 2021 the firm made a series of appointments, including key hires in commercial property, corporate, energy, planning and residential property.
