Anderson Strathern
No of Partners: 48
www.andersonstrathern.co.uk
Edinburgh-based Anderson Strathern is a commercially-focused middle tier firm which is setting its sights on greater things.
Presently 48 partners strong, and with over 200 staff in total, the firm claims extensive client lists in employment, corporate, property, litigation (including personal injury insurance work), banking, planning, construction and projects (which has a growing reputation in healthcare PFI).
Anderson Strathern has one of Scotland’s largest private client departments, as well as one its foremost agriculture and estates practices and a substantial charity law expertise. It has additional niche specialisms in medical negligence (partner and Chairman Robert Carr was named specialist of the year for his work on medical negligence cases at the 2004 Scottish Legal Awards) and sports law.
2004 also saw the firm make its first office move in 220 years, when it relocated from its North Castle Street base to Rutland Court, in the heart of the Exchange financial district.
As well as the practical aspects (the firm had run out of space in its New Town premises), the move was also a statement of intent – to emphasise that, despite its age, the firm is a modern, commercial practice and it also took the opportunity to re-brand itself at the same time.
“The re-brand shows that we are a modern firm retaining the core values which have always underpinned the way we go about our business,” says former Chairman Alan Menzies. “Re-branding was a strategic rather than a cosmetic decision designed to drive the business on by projecting the firm as open, forward moving and assertive in a competitive business market.”
It is certainly true that its employment practices are far from Dickensian. The firm has achieved Investors in People status (the first large Scottish law firm to do so) and operates both part-time working and flexitime schemes, as well as enabling staff to work from home through the provision of remote access to the firm’s IT systems.
“We practise what we preach,” says employment partner Neil McLean.
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