What’s in store for the Scottish legal sector over the next 12 months
Fraser Gillies, managing partner at Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP, explores what the future holds for the Scottish legal landscape
There are big economic changes coming in the budget that are going to affect our client base, including changes in inheritance tax which will inevitably generate a need for a lot of legal work, particularly in the private client sphere.
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Equally we may see reforms directly affect law firms too. If we do indeed see changes to the taxation of LLPs the impact will be quite significant. Plus there are other regulatory changes on the horizon, with the FCA taking over the supervision of areas including money laundering, so we can expect firms to scale up their compliance schemes.
All these things combined will make the trading environment for law firms trickier over the next twelve months, putting pressure on firms that are not sufficiently profitable or already thinking about how they may adapt to these changes.
Scottish election impact
At this moment in time we are finding our clients are more focused on the potential impact of the UK general election rather than the Scottish election despite it being a while away.
“It’s already impacting project timelines and thinking on renewables projects for example. Many clients are keen to get consent before the general election in case of reform and the risk they may not get ministerial approval.
Outlook and opportunities over the next 12 months
In the coming 12 months we expect to have a particular focus of private client advisory work given the economic changes that are on the horizon – estate planning, high net worth, and tax planning in particular. Renewables will also continue to be a real area of focus for our firm, with plans to grow the team over the coming year.
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