Buyer of law firm MMS has more growth plans in sight

● Dentons says 30-plus support jobs are ‘at risk’ ● Group’s billings have also leapt outside London

Dentons, the global law firm that announced its merger with Scots commercial law firm Maclay Murray & Spens (MMS) in July, yesterday revealed that it still had growth ambitions in Scotland and the wider UK.

Jeremy Cohen, chief executive of Dentons UKMEA (UK, Middle East and Africa), said 24 hours after the merger completed: “We will definitely be seeking growth in the UK.

“We are far from the largest legal firm in the UK, even though we are in the top 20. That [growth] is not confined to London. We will be looking at growing strategically in Scotland, too.”

The deal with MMS, which traces its roots back to 1871 and was the first commercial law firm to be set up in Scotland, seesthemmsbranddisappear as it comes under the Dentons banner. Cohen and former MMS chief executive Kenneth Shand, who becomes a senior partner in Dentons, did not put a figure at this stage on potential financial synergies from the merger.

But Shand said just more than 30 support postions in the merged organisation were “at risk” of redundancy through de-duplication, although some within that figure were looking at possible redeployment within Dentons.

“There are certainly some duplicated functions, and talks on that are progressing,” Shand said. The combined firm, the biggest law firm in the world measured by number of lawyers, will have a combined practice of about 800 fee earners, including 200 partners, in the UK.

Dentons operates in 158 locations in 66 countries, but with no specific headquarters, and has more than 8,000 lawyers and 15,000 staff in total.

Cohen said this decentralised structure was because Dentons did not want a “colonial structure whre we send people out from London, New York or whatever to build up a new business in a different country from there,

“We want it to feel like an English legal firm in London, a French law firm in Paris and a Singaporean firm in Singapore”.

The pace of international growth at Dentons has accelerated in recent years, including moving into Italy and China in 2015, Australia and Singapore in 2016, and Scotland, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Brazil, Peru and Uganda this year.

On the UK front, Cohen said the company had seen a 220 per cent leap in billings outside London in the past two years. Business property adviser Christie & Co is selling the Aboukir Hotel on Ireland Street in Carnoustie as the current owners want to focus on other business interests. The Aboukir overlooks the North Sea coastline. Christie & Co said the sale “presents a fantastic opportunity for the new owners to host visitors during the Open Golf Championship at the Carnoustie Links in July 2018”. The course is rated one of the toughest links courses in Scotland.